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Books I've Read: The New York Trilogy (City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room)

2012-01-23T16:48:00.000-05:00

by Paul Auster

First of all, my new niece and my parents' first grandchild was born today! This is VERY EXCITING and I've been happy about it all afternoon.

But anyway, this book. (Which I actually finished last week, whoops.) I have had this paperback lying around my apartment, unread, for YEARS. Years. Books that fall into this category, the lying around the apartment unread for years category, also include Ulysses and Bleak House, but this little trilogy was much less daunting.

The idea of the author's choice in writing, and whether his point of view can be trusted, is something that I always think about when I read. This book takes that theme as far as possible, and it will drive a reader crazy if you let it!

Nothing in the story lines told in these three related novellas is really resolved, although the last one does give you a hint about what is going on, which was satisfying enough for me. I recommend this one for thinkers and lovers of urban fiction, but not for anyone who needs a happy ending. Or even an ending at all.

Books I've Read: The Devil's Cup: A History of the World According to Coffee

2012-01-11T15:50:00.000-05:00

I'll admit that I picked up this paperback because on the cover it says that Anthony Bourdain thought it was "Absolutely riveting." I do love Bourdain.

This is a light read, part history of coffee and part hilarious travelogue - I liked the travelogue parts better than the history parts, but on the whole it is entertaining. I think it feel quite short of proving its thesis that coffee enlightened humanity, but it is still a fun book for a coffee-lover such as myself.

Here are some memorable quotes:

"Drugs directly alter human behavior, productivity, and even reason. I'm not saying that medieval man was stupider than his modern cousin. He was merely decaffeinated and much like you or me before our first cup: grouchy and muddleheaded." (p. 133)

"Coffee and humanity both sprang from the same area in eastern Africa. What if some of those early ape-men nibbled on the bright red berries? What if the resulting mental stimulation opened them up to a new way of looking at old problems, much as it did Europeans? Could this group of berry nibblers be the Missing Link, and that memory of the bright but bitter-tasting fruit be the archetype for the story of the Garden of Eden?" (p. 133-134)

"We [Americans] became a nation of java junkies, wired from dawn to dusk intent on running faster, getting richer, dancing harder, playing longer and getting higher than anybody else." (p. 199)

Recommended, but don't take it too seriously.

Books I've Read: Stories I Only Tell My Friends

2012-01-09T12:58:00.000-05:00

by Rob Lowe

I'm not going to give too much away, because some of the ladies in my book club might read this blog, and we have not yet had our meeting.

I will say that I re-watched The Outsiders movie after reading what Rob Lowe had to say about filming it, and thought it was sad that all of the scenes he was really proud of were cut. I agree with him, also, that the final product bore only a slight resemblance to the book. Granted, I haven't read it since high school, but I remember the brothers' relationship being central to the novel, and that theme is nonexistent in the movie. Too bad.

I loved reading about all the people he has met along the way; the Liza Minnelli anecdote is hilarious.

2011, A Look Back

2012-01-06T13:02:00.000-05:00

In 2011, I...

Realized that I have been living in New York for an entire decade. I moved here in October of 2001. That's nearly a third of my life! Crazy.

Ran a MARATHON! This is the most important thing I did this year, hands down. I have guaranteed entry to the ING NYC Marathon for 2012, but I'm still on the fence about whether to register and am refusing to commit until the very last minute.

Ran just under 900 miles. I'm disappointed in this number, but I only have myself to blame because if I had tracked it more closely I could have easily made it to 1000. I didn't even really look at it until December, when it was too late. Running 1000 miles is on my to-do list for 2012.

Read approximately 32 books. Not very many. This is 1 fewer than I read in 2010, and I didn't attain my ultimate goal of finishing Bleak House. Also, last December I noted that I hoped to read about a book a week in 2011, a goal I came nowhere near meeting. Oh, well. I did make a little bit of headway on the lists I made for myself (a new list is going up soon).

Completed all twelve of the Charcutepalooza challenges. I learned so much about meat last year, and am proud of my accomplishment. Curing, sausage-stuffing, etc. - I know how to do those things now, which is cool. My household's favorite was probably the corned beef, or the pastrami I made for the final project. Even outside of Charcutepalooza, I cooked a lot at home this year, and I'm proud of that. In 2012 I plan to focus on learning more about Asian food and flavors, and have been looking at classes and plotting monthly feasts. I am also thinking of doing a pie or baked good each month, and writing a detailed blog post about those, because although I bake all the time, I rarely write about it or do anything new. Stay tuned for more on my self-imposed yearly food challenges! And yes, taste-testers are always welcome at our apartment.

Traveled to: Tampa, Florida for Yankees spring training; India for work (twice); Chicago (twice)--once for my parents' 60th birthday celebration and once over the holidays; Newport, Rhode Island, my newest favorite place; the Midwest, including St. Louis, Missouri, southern Illinois, and the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, for some family time; Bermuda (here's another Bermuda link), which I LOVE; and Charleston and Kiawah Island, South Carolina. Each trip was special. This year we are looking forward to another trip to Florida for spring training, a possible European vacation, and lots of other traveling adventures.

Had some fantastic concert experiences, including The Decemberists, Kylie Minogue, Ryan Adams, Wilco, Foo Fighters, and My Morning Jacket. New York is a great place for lovers of live music.

Ate in at least 75 restaurants, probably more. My favorites in New York were Eleven Madison Park and WD-50. I also really liked Fatty 'Cue, Jones Wood Foundry, Go Burger, Red Rooster Harlem, and Riverpark.

Saw lots of good baseball games, and did lots of fun NYC things. John and I were at the Yankees game during which Mariano Rivera broke the all time saves record previously held by Trevor Hoffman, and we saw a few of the games leading up to Derek Jeter recording his 3,000 hit, but we weren't in attendance at that exact game. We also rode in the 5 Boro Bike Tour, heard Larry Kudlow and Michael Lewis (among others) speak, went to the ballet, and spent quality time with family and friends. Oh, and let's not forget experiencing the earthquake and Hurricane Irene!

2011 was a year of a lot personal triumphs, but also some frustrations. I learned a lot and met some inspiring new people. Aside from my constant quests to read more and become a better cook, as well as my goal of running 1000 miles, I have in mind a few other things I would like to accomplish in 2012, but I'm keeping those under my hat for now!

Restaurant Ravings: Holiday Eats Edition, December 2011

2012-01-05T11:28:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

The other day I posted a long list of restaurants I visited over the past few months (something I always mean to do more frequently, but oh, well). Continuing on, to wrap up December and 2011 my husband and I dined at some great places, so here are some notes about those.

Eleven Madison Park, New York, NY, 23 December 2011. I think this was the best meal I had all year. Oh, I loved it so. To begin, I had a delicious bourbon cocktail while we took a look at the menu, which only provides the main ingredient of each course, so the rest is a surprise. I chose crab, cauliflower, the two-person duck (to share with John), and the cheese course to end. Every course was a amazing, but the crab and duck really stood out. John's lobster and foie gras dishes were also very special. I did not love the cheese, so if I am lucky enough to dine here again, next time I'll order a real dessert. After dinner they invited us back to the kitchen and made us a fun cocktail while we watched the kitchen goings-on...awesome!

Bar Toma, Chicago, IL, 24 December 2011. Christmas Eve morning John and I flew to Chicago, where one of my brothers and his wife live, to spend the holiday weekend with my family. My sister-in-law is quite pregnant (due in January!), so she couldn't travel, but that was all good because we ate some delicious food while we were there. Bar Toma serves really good pizzas, and we also enjoyed the whole burrata (not as big as advertised, four of us had no trouble taking it down).

Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak, & Stone Crab, Chicago, IL, 24 December 2011. My brother Loren LOVES Joe's, and it is an excellent steakhouse. They serve a bone-in ribeye that is to die for, and the crabs are always amazing. Also, don't sleep on the peanut butter pie or the peppermint ice cream desserts.

Pump Room, Public Hotel, Chicago, IL, 25 December 2011. Both the Pump Room and the Public Hotel were recently re-designed by Ian Shrager, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten renovated the Pump Room's classic menu. The dining room here is absolutely stunning, and the food is fantastic. All of the toasts we tried were good, and my pork chop was great (if huge).

Balsan, The Elysian Hotel, Chicago, IL, 26 December 2011. My mom wanted to have a tiny family baby shower for Karee, so we had a girls lunch at Balsan to do it. It was great! We particularly liked the potted eggplant appetizer.

Sunda, Chicago, IL, 26 December 2011. We almost didn't go here as a group because my parents had been with Loren and Karee before, and they thought it would be too loud. But, we went, and I'm so glad! Sunda serves pan-Asian kind of food, which is completely up my alley. I particularly liked the crab noodles, the rock shrimp tempura, and a pork belly dish they offered as a special that day. So good.

The Original Pancake House, Chicago, IL, 27 December 2011. Dutch baby. It is a custardy kind of thin pancake served with butter, powdered sugar, and lemon, and it will absolutely blow your mind.

(photo from The Original Pancake House's website)

Ooki Sushi, New York, NY, 30 December 2011. Sigh, back in New York. I got a terrible cold last week, so when we made plans with some friends to go to Ippudo for ramen noodles, I was wildly excited. But, then I showed up before 6PM to put our name on the list, thinking maybe we would eat by 9PM (a long wait is expected, so we planned to chill at a bar nearby in the interim) and the hostess told me it would be a SIX HOUR WAIT. Whaaaaa? I mean, I knew that the city was packed with annoying tourists for the New Year's Eve weekend, but a six hour wait for ramen? That's ridiculous. We regrouped at a nearby bar and decided to head uptown to get some decent sushi near home. Ooki serves this tuna pancake appetizer that is delicious, and the wait was approximately zero minutes. Win!

So, that's it for restaurant dining in 2011. I can only hope that we enjoy as many fantastic meals in 2012.

Race Report: NYRR Ted Corbitt 15K

2011-12-29T21:49:00.000-05:00

Hope you all had a lovely holiday weekend! I returned from Chicago on Tuesday night toting many wonderful gifts, including a new coat and a Steak 'n Shake gift card (the NYC branch opens in just a few weeks, you know, and I'm beside myself with excitement), so I'm a happy gal.

Before the holiday I ran the NYRR Ted Corbitt 15K in Central Park. I had an ambitious time goal in mind, one that I previously mentioned here (and here!), with the idea that saying it out loud might help make it a reality. That goal was 1:37, or about 10:30/mile pace. I ran this race in 2010 in 1:42:31, and, after the marathon and a few subsequent successful longish training runs I knew I could probably cut off five minutes from that time. Deep down, my super secret goal – the one that I thought was so unreasonable that I told almost no one – was to run this race in under 10:00/mile, which take me about 1:32. NYRR stores its members’ fastest pace per mile and prints it on the bibs for its races, and this pace dictates participants’ bib numbers and where they get to line up before the race. Faster people nearer to the front, etc. I have long wanted my bib time to be below a 10:00/mile pace, but never, before this race, thought I was ready to accomplish that. I have no idea how to “race” a race; I usually just go out there and run around a little bit, based on how I feel. This is something I want to work on next year.

The conditions on race day were perfect (for me). I love cold weather, and that day it was clear and sunny and in the mid 30’s. A little breezy, but not bad. I wore capris, a short-sleeved tech tee, my awesome Nike wool half-zip top (recommended!) over it, gloves and a fleece hat. I wasn't cold at all until later when I was walking home.

The first mile was frustrating, because the course was nutso crowded. I kept thinking, “Can all these people REALLY run 9.3 miles? I don’t believe it. Pick it up. Get outta my way.” My first mile was around 10:30, and it felt sloooooow. I don’t know what was going on in the back of the pack, but I passed tons of people. (In case you’re new here, this is not normal for me.)

So, then, my second mile was under 9:30! I knew that I had made up that 30 seconds over my goal pace and was feeling great, so I decided to go for my super secret goal. The first few miles flew by, and I didn’t feel like walking at all. I did walk through a water station at mile 5 and sucked down a Gu gel, which I wasn’t sure I needed, but ate anyway only because I was nervous that morning and had not eaten my normal amount of pre-race food.

When I passed the 10K mark in less than an hour and compared that to my fastest recorded 10K time (1:03, or 10:10/mile pace), I thought that I could definitely lower my bib time and maybe break 1:30 for this race. Toward the end, I tried to stay steady, keep my head up, and breathe easy, and I didn’t even walk up Cat Hill. Win! I finished in 1:29:23, with an average pace per mile of 9:36. Hooray! Can you tell that I am mighty excited about this? I'm improving, and that feels good.

Afterward, I met up with some running friends, and everyone was very pleased with their results, which is always so great to hear.

Looking forward, I have the Joe Kleinerman 10K on January 7th, and then the Manhattan Half-Marathon on January 21st. I'm thinking about my goals for those races, and I will be happy with a 10K time under an hour and a half time under 2:15, but I might revise those thoughts based on the conditions and how I am feeling during my training for the [insane] Empire State Building Run-Up. I'm also shopping for a March Half-Marathon (assuming I don't get in to the NYC Half - the lottery results should be out this week), but am not really looking past that.

Restaurant Ravings: September through December, 2011

2011-12-23T12:00:00.000-05:00

I never had time to flesh out and really write about my restaurant visits this fall, but here is a (looooooong) list and some brief notes, if only for my memory's sake.

Husk, Charleston, SC (1 September 2011). John and I went to Husk for lunch with my parents before joining a charming walking tour of Charleston. The food is outstanding. I particularly remember the rillettes.

Fig, Charleston, SC (1 September 2011). Fig is a great restaurant. I had an egg dish that was out of this world, and our service was fantastic.

Ryder Cup Bar, at the Ocean Course, Kiawah Island, SC (2 September 2011). I never got around to blogging about our trip to Charleston and Kiawah Isand, but I loved it there! We relaxed, played some golf, and enjoyed spending some time with my parents. I'd go back in a second, and not only because the food on Kiawah Island is really good. We had lunch and drinks at the Ryder Cup Bar a couple of times, and it is great because you can watch the golfers approach the clubhouse as they are finishing their rounds.

The Ocean Course.

Tomasso, at the Turtle Point Course, Kiawah Island, SC (2 September 2011). This place serves good Italian food; I had a caprese salad that was particularly tasty.

Jasmine Room, at The Sanctuary, Kiawah Island, SC (3 and 4 September 2011). This restaurant is nice, but we had the most bizarre server at dinner one night. The fried green tomatoes were really good, as were the she crab soup and the shrimp and grits.

Fatty 'Cue, New York, NY (16 September 2011). When Fatty 'Cue opened up mere blocks from my office, I couldn't wait to try it and made an early evening reservation as soon as I could. This place is fantastic; everything was delicious. We had the "Ham Jam Butter & Bread," the "Smoked Brandt Beef Brisket," the chicken and eggplant salad, and some specials. Next time I want to try the fried rabbit.

Riverpark, New York, NY (25 September 2011). I've written about Riverpark a few times, and we still love it.

Macelleria, New York City Wine & Food Festival "Charcuterie 101" lunch, New York, NY (1 October 2011). This event was timely because of my year-long commitment to Charcutepalooza; the charcuterie tasting we did there was excellent for research! The food was great, and the basement space was rustic and pretty. I'd like to go back for a regular meal.

Malaka Spice, Pune, India (11 October 2011). This place is awesome. Some Indian friends of mine took me and my colleague here for dinner when I was in Pune on business, which was tons of fun. The food is great, but my friends also know everybody in town, so dinner was festive, with lots of people stopping by. I particuarly liked the "top hat" appetizer and the lotus root dish. Also, I'll never forget the crazy rainstorm that was going on when Tushar came to the hotel to fetch us.

The House, New York, NY (16 October 2011). John and I always like to go out for a date dinner when I return home from traveling for business, and he chose this restaurant after my last trip. It was nice! I liked the deviled egg trio and the truffled mac & cheese.

Bar Pleiades, Surrey Hotel, New York, NY (22 October 2011). My friends and I popped in here for a snack and some drinks after shopping for bridesmaid dresses, and I was very pleasantly surprised. Daniel Boulud does the food here, and all of the charcuterie tastes were delicious. Also, the "Horse's Neck" cocktail (with Buffalo Trace, ginger, lemon, and soda) is a delight. I could go for one right now, actually.

Jones Wood Foundry, New York, NY (22 October 2011). John met me and my friends here for dinner after our rest stop at Bar Pleiades. We have been before, and will continue to go back forever. The meat pies are not to be missed.

Terrapin Restaurant, Rhinebeck, NY (23 October 2011). After Tracy and I ran the Inaugural Fall Foliage Half Marathon, we looked around Rhinebeck for a little while and had some lunch here. After a half, all I ever want is a giant cheeseburger and a beer, so that's what I had. Oh! Also, I never got around to writing my race report, but here is hers! She said that I'm not allowed to pick races anymore because that course was HILLY, and the mile markers were stupidly wonky. Fair enough. It was pretty, though, and the organizers, runners, and spectators were all really nice.

Look at the dude behind me. He covets my giant pumpkin beer.

After lunch, we checked out the Walkway Over the Hudson. Tracy is being nosy, despite the strongly-worded signage.

Walkway Over the Hudson.

Dairy Queen, Hyde Park, NY (23 October 2011). Obviously while Tracy and I were in upstate New York running races and eating lunch and walking over the Hudson, we made a pilgrimage to Dairy Queen. Duh. I'm certain that the promise of a Dairy Queen visit is the only reason she agreed to do this race with me. I had the pumpkin pie Blizzard. It was incredible.

Yep. Proudly wearing my medal.

Tamarind Tribeca, New York, NY (29 October 2011 and 3 November 2011). John and I first went here on a date night, but we liked it so much that we took my parents and my dad's training partner and his wife the next week when they all came in for the marathon. Our visitors had never really tried Indian food, so we ordered an assortment of dishes. Their dal makhni is really good, and if they have the cauliflower appetizer special when you go, get it!

Sarabeth's, New York, NY (4 November 2011). I met my mom and dad here for breakfast before we all went to the ING New York City Marathon expo at the Javitz Center. I love the porridge there, and we spotted Katie Couric at the next table over.

At the race expo with my dad.

Patsy's Pizzeria, New York, NY (5 November 2011). I was super anxious the day before the marathon, and convinced myself that I needed to get myself to Lululemon to buy a short-sleeved shirt that I most certain NEEDED because the weather was looking warmer than expected. I ended up wearing the long-sleeved shirt I already had, and returning the one I bought in a panic, but on the trip I met my mom and dad for a carby pizza lunch.

Paola's, New York, NY (5 November 2011). Madison Avenue Italian restaurant for pre-race pasta. This place is nice, but the high prices definitely reflect the neighborhood.

York Grill, New York, NY (6 November 2011). After the marathon, my dad and I and all of our fans went for dinner at York Grill, which is conveniently across the street from where I live. I was feeling weird and didn't eat much, but the staff was SO congratulatory and kind.

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, New York, NY (12 November 2011). This day was fun! It started with a beer run in Brooklyn, moved on to sharing a giant cupcake with runner friends, and ended at Dinosar Bar-B-Que. I'm actually kind of "meh" on their ribs, but those chicken wings rock.

Rouge Tomate, New York, NY (26 November 2011). I had been meaning to try this restaurant forever, so I randomly made a reservation for John and I on a date night. They source locally and serve seasonal, nutritional fare. I thought the food was great; we particularly liked the seasonal toasts and the butternut squash soup.

Serafina, New York, NY (6 December 2011). I actually don't like this place that much, but we needed a quick dinner before the Ryan Adams concert at Carnegie Hall. The calamari was really good, which was a nice surprise, but I was in an uncomfortable spot on a curved booth seat, crowded by the overweight lady and her many shopping bags beside me. The concert was great, though.

Essex, New York, NY (10 December 2011). I had "The Aristocrat" platter, which is fantastic. Potato pancakes, eggs, yum. And a side of crispy bacon, of course. This day involved a Jingle Bell Jog in Brooklyn and a Santacon experience, so click here to read all about that.

Loreley, New York, NY (10 December 2011). The Köstritzers and pretzel basket hit the spot. Santacon.

Pan Asian, New York, NY (10 December 2011). After my big Santacon day out, John and I went for some neighborhood Chinese. The food here was surprisingly good; we had normal stuff, dumplings and scallion pancakes, string beans, chicken, etc., and left happy.

Sarabeth's, New York, NY (13 December 2011). Back again! John and I both took this random Tuesday off work, and used it to sleep late, go to brunch, wander around, and go to a Rangers hockey game. The lemon ricotta pancakes here are the stuff of dreams. John's burger was really good, too.

Southern Hospitality, New York, NY (13 December 2011). Went before the Rangers game. The pulled pork nachos are amazing, but the fried pickles here are surprisingly lackluster. How can a fried pickle NOT be delicious? That's unclear, but this place manages to accomplish it. Too bad.

Dallas Jones BBQ, New York, NY (22 December 2011). Lunch with C. Shared pulled chicken sandwich and half rack of baby back ribs. Love this place, will definitely get lunch again, because it is close by my office and has amazing lunch specials I didn't even know existed.

Eleven Madison Park, New York, NY (23 December 2011). This dinner is happening TONIGHT, and I cannot wait! I'm sensing that it will deserve its own blog post.

We are off to Chicago tomorrow to spend some holiday time with my family, so I'm sure there will be lots of good food to be eaten and written about...stay tuned for that. Happy holidays, everyone!

Tara's Favorite Fifteen Albums of 2011

2011-12-22T11:56:00.002-05:00

This blog used to be a lot more about music, but my life is different now. I always think about that when the end of the year rolls around and I am compelled to catalog my favorite albums.

I think this was a fantastic year in music. New albums from Wilco, Ryan Adams, and Tom Waits, ALL IN ONE YEAR? I swoon. In fact, in another year, albums like those released in 2011 by Matt Pond PA, Girls, Cults, Gillian Welch, Radiohead, Ellie Goulding, Iron & Wine, Lykke Li, Fleet Foxes, The War on Drugs, Smith Westerns, and even The Black Keys (which is growing on me) would be on this list. I just enjoyed listening to the following fifteen a hair more than all the rest.

Tara's Favorite Fifteen Albums of 2011

(in alphabetical order)

Adele - 21. This album is on lots of end-of-year lists, and for good reason. Adele is a pop music powerhouse, and the fact that her music has reached everyone from Top 40 consumers to your mom deserves respect. Adele's voice knocks you flat, is full of soulful character, and makes the sad and angry break-up songs on this album feel rootsy and timeless. I do think there are some problems with the album's arrangement, but that's not her fault. I like "Set Fire to the Rain" and "Someone Like You."

Bon Iver - Bon Iver. I still listen to Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago all the time, and this new one is even better than that one. Gorgeous. You have to listen to the whole album, in order, but I think my favorite song is "Beth/Rest." "Holocene" also gives me chills.

The Decemberists - The King is Dead. Well, Gillian Welch sings a lot on this album, which is a nice touch. It is an Americana country-folk kind of thing with lots of harmonica, and I find it to be remarkably addictive. I saw The Decemberists in concert twice this year (both times great - Colin Meloy is a cheerful, engaging frontman); once in January at the Beacon and once this summer in Prospect Park. The Prospect Park show, in particular, was so memorable that I have to write about it: I went with my friend C., and it POURED for a while, but we were armed with awesome drugstore ponchos, so we felt very clever and prepared for the elements. Eventually it cleared up and the band put on an excellent show. However, we realized mid-concert that we had *almost* enough cash between us to buy one more beer (if we included C.'s random Canadian dime), but we were $0.50 short, and a generous music-loving girl behind us overheard our conversation and donated to our cause. Ha! Then, when the show was over I decided I wanted a poster, so I stood on line for a while, but once I got to the front I realized I did not have my wallet. After searching the grounds and asking around with the clean-up crew, we eventually retrieved my lost wallet (which was a miracle), but I was not able to acquire a show poster. Bummer. I ordered one on-line for the Beacon show, though. Anyway. Listen to "Don't Carry It All" and "June Hymn."

Feist - Metals. What an exquisite record. This album blows away that one that had that song that was in all the Apple ads. Don't get me wrong, I loved The Reminder - “I Feel it All” is STILL on my running mix. But this album is more darkly introspective. The arrangements are interesting, and the sounds of many instruments shift and flow naturally, seemingly effortlessly, and her vocals are stunning. I like "The Circle Married the Line."

Foo Fighters - Wasting Light. If you haven't seen the related Back and Forth documentary, watch it. The band recorded this record on analog, and that is cool. And, although it's not relevant to the merits of this particular album, a Foo Fighters live show (I saw them back in November) will never let you down. This album offers up grungy pop melodies with a dose of Dave Grohl's badass charisma, so what's not to love? "Arlandria" and "Dear Rosemary" are great tracks.

King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine. Over the summer, NPR did a program in which some of the radio folks talked about their favorite albums so far this year, and this album was featured. It is a quiet album, but one that has stuck with me ever since. I find it to be a calming antidote to hectic city life, encouraging the listener to slow down a second. Soft and lovely. It doesn't hurt that King Creosote is Scottish; I read that the album is meant to be a sort of love letter to Scotland, which is a theme I can get behind. Listen to "Bubble."

Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo. Intimate and melancholy, and I love the way he tells a story with richly detailed guitar work. "Jesus Fever" is great, as is "In My Time." Thanks to my friend Cliff for recommending this one.

My Morning Jacket - Circuitual. I think The War on Drugs album might be on this favorite fifteen list if I hadn't seen My Morning Jacket live in concert at Madison Square Garden just last week. The band absolutely KILLED IT, and honestly I'm still riding that jamband high. NPR said that this album is "room-filling rock majesty," and I'm on board with that. I know everyone except me hated Evil Urges (I love "Smokin' from Shootin'" so much that I hold that album a little dear), so this album is the obvious antidote to that. "Circuitual" is a fantastic song. And their live show is compelling.

P.J. Harvey - Let England Shake. This is a haunting album. The tunes are catchy, but the lyrics are about war. The light and dark makes it fascinating. These songs also have great texture; I read that the album was recorded in an echoey church, but the resulting fuzzy kind of space sound is filled out with horns, an autoharp, and gravelly guitars and percussion. Listen to "The Words that Maketh Murder."

Real Estate - Days. I wish I had this album all of last summer. It didn't come out until October, but it was perfect for the weirdly warmish fall we had, wandering around outside, even on long, slow runs. These songs remind me of high school, and "cruising" around my small hometown on weekends, checking out all of the other small-town kids. It is earnest and carefree and nostalgic, and brings out retrospective emotions in a way that only music can. Listen to "It's Real."

Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire. This is a finely crafted, spare, mellow album. It is gentle and straightforward, and Ryan's voice has never sounded better. John and I saw him in concert at Carnegie Hall not too long ago, and the solo acoustic set was enjoyable, if a bit serious...in a good way. Carnegie Hall rather demands it. Not too serious, though - Ryan Adams did refer to himself as "the alternative-country Danzig," which made me laugh. (Here is a link to a very good live recording of a show earlier in the tour.) I love "Dirty Rain" and "Lucky Now."

Tom Waits - Bad As Me. Put some Tom Waits on your next dinner party mix and let the good times romp. Stomp. I love all the noise and hollering, and I love how he makes music out of his weird, growly voice and odd sounds. He's a treasure. There is a huge variety here, from the ballad "Last Leaf" to the title track.

Washed Out - Within & Without. I listened to this chill album pretty much all summer. It is the kind of music that just shimmers over you, and you listen, and you're into it, and then it ends and you can go back and listen to the whole thing all over again. NPR said it like this: "At the core of Washed Out is a push and pull between electronic dance music and pop music, between songs based on slowly shifting and building textures and those built on a more traditional verse-chorus-verse structure." Yep. So good. I like the opening song, "Eyes By Closed," and "Far Away," but the whole thing is really good.

Wilco - The Whole Love. Hi. Have we met? Then you probably know that any time Wilco puts out an album, it will be on my favorites list. (I also rarely miss a tour.) This album is awesome in that it takes bits of Wilco's past successes (I think it sounds a bit like Summerteeth) and still manages to do something fresh. "Born Alone" is great.

Wye Oak - Civilian. I saw Wye Oak open up for The Decemberists last winter, and Jenn Wasner can SHRED. Marni Stern? Who? This girl is better. Also, the dude in this duo, Andy Stack, plays the drums and the keyboard AT THE SAME TIME. It's remarkable. These moody songs seethe and wiggle, push and pull, build and crash. The title track, "Civilian," is excellent.

Books I've Read: The Art of Fielding

2011-12-18T15:01:00.000-05:00

by Chad Harbach

I liked this novel. I bought it because I read the New York Times book review and thought it sounded like something my husband might like; I'm reasonably certain he has read every baseball book ever written. But then, it sat around for a few months and he had not read it yet, and it started turning up on a lot of the "best of" lists for 2011, so I decided to go ahead and read it. Every day I would tell John all about what was happening and ask him if certain baseball references were accurate, and he would respond by telling me to hurry up and finish the book already because he wanted to read it. I can't wait for him to get into it to see what he thinks.

It is a wonderful story about baseball, but it is also about a college campus, family, and loyalty among friends. Failure, and pulling ourselves up from it. The passages describing Henry's over-analysis on the field and his mental break are excruciating to read, but lyrical and compelling. I liked the characters and, although I thought the story suffered a little bit about 2/3 of the way through when it took a turn toward an "underdog" kind of sports story (a la Hoosiers), that didn't bother me.

I will also say that as I was approaching the end, this is the first book in a while that I wasn't exactly sure how it would end. I wasn't surprised by the ending, but I also didn't see it coming.

Today I read some of the negative reviews on Amazon, and it seems that a bunch of people feel like they were duped by all of the hype built up around The Art of Fielding. I know I don't need to defend it, but I think that certain types of readers might not be able to forgive some of the author's decisions. I liked the quirky character names and some of the implausible twists, and while I noticed that some of the characters (particularly Pella's husband and Owen's mom) were kind of flat and unnecessary, I think this novel was intentionally rambling. It was fun to read.

Race Report: NYRR's Jingle Bell Jog...Santacon...you know.

2011-12-15T07:43:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine recently returned to running, and we have been running together on occasional early weekday mornings. So, when she signed up to run NYRR's Jingle Bell Jog in Prospect Park, which was originally a 4-mile race but was shortened to a 6K (3.7 miles) due to construction, I told her I would do it with her to support her and keep her company. And round out my 9+1 for guaranteed entry to the 2012 ING NYC Marathon. That, too.

Saturday morning dawned clear and cold, in the high 30's. This is, for the record, my very favorite kind of weather - when it is crisp and crystal clear, chilly enough to brighten sharpen everything but not windy or frigid enough to make humans miserable. Cold enough for a coat and scarf. I may be in the minority on this, but I love winter. I'm a cold weather kind of girl. Summer is gross and humid and sweaty and makes the city sidewalks smell like steamed garbage and cooked dog pee.

I needed to run 9-10 miles that day, so, before the race, I took the subway down to Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall. I ran over the bridge, through downtown Brooklyn, and then south in the general direction of Prospect Park. This worked out perfectly, because when I arrived I had run about 5.5 miles, so with the race added on I would be right on target for my mileage.

One thing that struck me on this run was that running down Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn on a random day is not all that pleasant. There were some dodgy heckling characters hanging around, and there are lots of empty lots and gas stations. Contrast this to running up it on the day of the marathon, which is an entirely pleasant memory for me - then, it was packed with enthusiastic spectators, which I guess disguised the unlovely scenery.

B did great during the race! Like last year, it was crowded and there were tons of little kids alternatively dead-stopping and darting in front of the runners, but the mood was fantastic. We stuck to an approximate 11 minute/mile pace, and she felt good about her finish and is already thinking about tackling a 10K or a half-marathon.

On average over the 9.3 miles, I tried to stay on pace for my upcoming 15K goal (10:30, or 1:37), and I did. I'm really going to try to come in under that this weekend.

Afterward, we headed into Manhattan for brunch at Essex, which was great. I had potato pancakes with poached eggs and a side of bacon, and brunch there comes with 3 cocktails (yum, post-run bloody mary), which possibly contributed to the strange string of decisions made next. The day took an unexpected turn, but hey, this is New York. It happens.

At Essex we bumped into a bunch of folks dressed up for Santacon (and we fit right in - I had worn a Santa hat for the Jingle Bell Jog, B had on an amazing elf hat complete with huge ears, and her friend S wore a headband with little snowmen on it), so I decided that it would be a GREAT idea to head down to the South Street Seaport to meet up with my friends C and S, who were dressed in full-on Santa suits and already out and about. So, this happened:

B's friend S, me (I borrowed the beard from my friend to complete my "Runner Santa" outfit), and B.

Keep in mind that it was COLD and I had no coat, no wallet, and was wearing my running clothes. Capri running pants, 2 layers of light long-sleeved tech tee shirts, race bib, sneakers, Santa hat. And yet, Runner Santa stayed out almost all day! The Seaport was crazy crowded with Santas, so we decided to head north to find a bar to await Santacon's next announced move.

NY Times photo. Santas at the Seaport. It was crazier than it looks from this far away. Trust me.

The six of us got separated, and C, S (not the S in the picture above) and I ended up at Loreley. We were pretty comfortable there, so when Santacon went to City Hall Park and later to Grand Central Station, we stayed put. Loreley kept us warm and entertained by serving us lots of delicious Köstritzers and pretzels.

Runner Santa LOVES Loreley! She is running to the bar to get another beer!

Trying to drink this beer through my righteous beard was tricky, but Runner Santa worked it out.

The Jingle Bell Jog turned Santacon Saturday was a good one. Eventually I went home to take a shower and put on weather-appropriate clothing, and John and I went out for Chinese food.

It remains to be seen whether Runner Santa will make an appearance at next year's Santacon.

Empire State Building Run-Up

2011-12-14T10:02:00.001-05:00

Almost three years ago I wrote this prescient post. If you're not interested in clicking through, here's a recap: I read about the Empire State Building Run-Up in the free paper and, feeling curiously inspired, decided to see if I could do the 86 flights on the stair climber at my gym. It took me a whopping 26 minutes, and I didn't even do the entire 1576 steps!

Photo from the ESB's Facebook page. It looks pretty tall, no?

Fast-forward to Monday, when I found out that NYRR's random lottery had chosen me for a spot in this iconic race. Holy shit. Now my credit card has been charged $100, which means that there is no going back, and I have to figure out how to train for this thing.

I also came across this gem on the ESB's Facebook page. My "1 Mission?" Not to collapse.

Photo from the ESB's website. I guarantee that I will NOT be running like that girl in the front.

Because I already got super lucky with NYRR's race lotteries once this year when I, a local, inexplicably won a spot in the NYC Half Marathon (here's my race report), I thought there was no way I would be chosen for this run. The odds were against me. Luck expires. Honestly, the slim chance of getting in to the Empire State Building Run-Up was a large factor in my decision to pull the trigger and enter the lottery. I thought I wouldn't get in! Yep, I know that logic is flawed. Lesson learned. The other take-away is that I should obviously buy a Powerball ticket.

So, in the end, I'm excited to participate, but dreading the training (I found this, which is helpful), just a little bit. Plodding up my apartment building's internal stairwell 3 times, 3 times per week, from now until February 8th doesn't sound like much fun. Plus, the e-mail I received confirming my entry says that my race takes place at 8:30PM, which is weird. There is a lot to be anxious about here, but I also think the event will be a lot of fun and extremely rewarding. We'll see!

Books I've Read: Steve Jobs

2011-12-09T11:08:00.000-05:00

by Walter Isaacson

"Insanely great."

I am no Apple devotee; I have a PC laptop and don't really foresee that changing, and am very happy reading e-books on my second-generation Kindle. But, then, I say all that, and I think: I do have and love an iPhone and an iPod, and our household also recently acquired an iPad, but a certain someone (guess who? One hint: it is neither of our cats) doesn't share well so I haven't been a heavy tablet user.

But, oh, man, do I ever love the iPod. I have loved it ever since I saw those silhouette ads back in 2001. If I had to choose, I think I could give up the iPhone (at least all of the functions other than the music player), but not the iPod.

"[T]he iPod became the essence of everything Apple was destined to be: poetry connected to engineering, arts and creativity intersecting with technology, design that's bold and simple."

When this book came out earlier this fall, I was curious and did want to read it, and then it was chosen for my book club. First, if you do read it (and I do recommend it), don't be intimidated by its brevity. It takes a while to get going, but the second half flew by for me. Also, in the Kindle, it finished up at 78% - a lot of the back pages are devoted to notes. In fact, I was really confused when I was about 3/4 of the way through the book, and Steve Jobs was very sick and probably going to pass away soon, but I thought I still had hundreds of pages to go - I kept thinking, "What else can possibly happen in this book once Steve Jobs is no longer alive?" Based on the dips in stock prices every time Jobs made public appearances, near the end of his life when he looked unwell, I guess the market and all the Apple investors thought the same thing about the company.

"He craved perfection, and he was not always good at figuring out how to settle for something less."

I didn't love Isaacson's voice at all at first; it seemed rather passionless, and he kept harping on Steve Jobs's lack of interpersonal skills, poor hygiene (apparently, for a while at least, he believed that eating a vegan diet meant that he didn't need to bathe himself), and "reality distortion" issues. Boring and repetitive. For the first 1/3 of the book, I was annoyed both with Jobs and Isaacson, but after Jobs was ousted from Apple and went on to Pixar, it radically improved. The fact that Steve Jobs was kind of an asshole didn't bother me anymore; instead I started to see him as a visionary, and as a businessperson who will certainly be remembered as one of most important innovators in history.

I ended up being really glad that I read it, and am looking forward to hearing what other people's reactions at book club tonight. I keep thinking about one quote from Laurene Powell, Jobs's wife:

"Like many great men whose gifts are extraordinary, he's not extraordinary in every realm," she said. "He doesn't have social graces, such as putting himself in other people's shoes, but he cares deeply about empowering humankind, and putting the right tools in their hands."

Charcutepalooza December Challenge: A Feast of Meats

2011-12-06T16:27:00.001-05:00

This final Charcutepalooza project was absolutely the most fun and the most rewarding for me. (The link to Mrs. Wheelbarrow's challenge is here.) The assignment was to make and use three to four tasty meat items from a prescribed list, have a party, and show off everything I learned during this year of meat.

Here's the list I could choose from:
•Smoke, cure, or brine a whole cut of meat, poultry or fish (for instance, ham, duck proscuitto, roulades, pastrami, smoked salmon)
•Dried, cured sausage (for instance, soppresata, saucisson sec, salami, landjager, chorizo)
•Pork belly, any preparation (for instance, bacon, pancetta, ventreche, red cooked, braised)
•Sausage (for instance, bulk, in casings, smoked, emulsified)
•Pate, terrine, or mousseline, en croute, if you wish
•Rillettes or confit

John and I got our Christmas tree on Saturday morning, and I had invited a handful of people over in advance for some tree-trimming and meat celebrating (my invitation re: line was "MEAT FEAST"). There was to be lots of food, drink, and board games (my favorite kind of night). I started preparing a few weeks ago by curing a pork belly to make bacon and ordering a brisket, for pastrami, and bunch of duck legs from D'Artagnan, to make duck confit.

Some photos from the feast preparation:

Everything is better with bacon!

Exciting delivery from D'Artagnan.

Getting started on the duck confit.

Party day! Prepping the finished bacon to make bacon-wrapped dates.

Pastrami, after roasting all day, just in for a boil until meal time.

Readying the duck confit. "What's that festive apron?" you ask.

Yes, it does indeed say "Get Your Merry On." That we did.

The menu came together organically - the idea was simply that I wanted to serve the things I loved best from this year.

I chose to do something with bacon because it was one of my favorite projects from this year - it is a fantastic, easy recipe that yields a wonderful result, and I know I will use again and again. Similarly, John's favorite product from this year of meat challenges was the corned beef from March, and the pastrami was his request. I was saving some of the rillettes (from the October challenge), which I loved so, so much, for a special occasion, and I just finished up dry-curing a batch of salami for the November challenge, so I knew I would serve those. The problem with the salami, if you recall, was that it came out quite dry, so I had to slice it really thinly to be able to do anything delicious with it. Poking around online I found this recipe, so I used that as inspiration to make a pizza roll appetizer kind of thing.

Around the holidays, I tend to crave some of my favorite dishes from the meals we would always have with my extended family back home in Illinois. Those favorites definitely include a cheese ball (I varied my grandma's recipe for this party, but the idea is the same), green bean casserole, and a chocolate meringue pie, so I wanted to share them with my friends.

Tara's Meat Feast Menu:
Pimento cheese dip
Rillettes
Honey-drizzled bacon-wrapped dates
Salami and three-cheese pizza roll
Pastrami sandwich fixin's buffet (rye bread, Swiss cheese, Russian dressing, coleslaw, red onions, mustard)
Midwestern style green bean casserole
Salad with duck confit, walnuts, Gorgonzola, and pears
Chocolate meringue pie

Honey-drizzled bacon-wrapped dates.

Appetizer spread, including the pimento cheese and the rillettes, in the back left.

Salami and three-cheese pizza roll.

Tracy, John's sister, posing with the pizza rolls. She looks excited.

Pastrami sandwich fixin's buffet, with the green bean casserole down there by that bowl of clementines. There aren't really any good pictures of the final duck confit product, because it was near the end of the evening and we forgot.

We had a great time! I think the crowd favorite was the pastrami, but they loved everything. I would love to do this again, sometime next year when I'm recovered from the meat/wine combo hangover. Here are some more pictures from the party:

John puts the angel on the top of our Christmas tree.

B, G, A, and C getting excited for some appetizers.

Tracy and B. And apparently someone was watching football?

C is looking pretty excited about some appetizers. A outs himself as one of the football-watchers.

This is one of my favorite pictures of all time.

Enthusiastically lining up for pastrami.

B pours more wine in the background, as A goes for more pastrami. Neither of these events is particularly surprising.

I finally sit down for some eats!

After eating a LOT of meat, we all played my personal favorite board game, Apples to Apples, and enjoyed dessert:

Chocolate meringue pie. The filling turned out just a tiny little bit grainy, but the top looks great, no?

John must have just won a hand!

Crumbs cupcakes contributed by C and A. We all agree that the cupcakes from there can be dry, but the minis are usually pretty good.

All in all, Meat Feast was a huge success. It was crazy fun. I enjoyed hosting our friends, and am already planning to have them all over again soon. I am so glad that I committed to Charcutepalooza this year; I learned a lot about food preservation and gained a very real appreciation for the craft of making of charcuterie.

Now that Charcutepalooza: A Year of Meat is over, I have been kicking around some ideas on what next year's project will be. I try to teach myself something new every year; this year it was the meats, obviously, and running my first marathon. I am seriously considering targeting Asian foods, simply because I love to eat them and there are so many different cuisines and types of dishes to try to learn! Soup dumplings, anyone?

Charcutepalooza November Challenge: Salami

2011-12-01T13:10:00.001-05:00

I have a pretty strong stomach, trained by years of eating whatever I want. Lots of coffee, lots of dairy, lots of hot sauce. I am lucky in that I cannot remember a time I chose not to eat or drink something because I thought it might upset my stomach, unless you count sushi in the land-locked part of Maharashtra in India or fecally contaminated water. A girl's gotta draw the line somewhere. I also once had a horrible, awful, terrible digestive event after eating some sort of liver crostini in Florence; I'm not a lover of liver to begin with, and that experience turned me against it for good.

But that's not to say that I will eat everything or that I do not fear food-borne illnesses, and after reading Chapter Five, "The Artist and the Sausage," of Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie book, I was uneasy about the safety of eating a meat product that had been dry-cured in my stuffy apartment. Mrs. Wheelbarrow's November challenge for all of the Charcutepaloozers was to cure a salami or a whole cut of meat, and I don't have a controlled environment that is anywhere close to ideal for curing meat. So, in the beginning, I was not terribly excited to tackle this challenge, but I was curious to see what would happen. In a science experiment kind of way.

But, back in January I hung duck breast prosciutto to cure in our bedroom corner beside a cracked window and a bowl of water, and it turned out well, so I hoped that the same approach would work for salami. Plus, I trusted, or, at least I TRIED to trust, that the curing salts and starter culture in the recipe would defeat any bad bacteria.

In case of disaster, I halved the recipe, so in case something went wrong I wouldn't have wasted an enormous hunk of expensive, organic, locally-sourced meat.

The starting weight.

I always stuff sausages wearing my best outfits, like giant T-shirts and pajama pants. Also, check out my high-tech sausage hanger.

It is also important to keep in mind that I ran a MARATHON in early November, which was kind of a big deal, and this project was due today, December 1st. After the big race, the Thanksgiving holiday was coming up and work has been busy, and so, once again (I think I say this every month), I got behind in this little charcuterie project and didn't hang the salami to cure until the weekend of November 20th. It was more than enough time - actually a little too much time - but I didn't know that until I got them down last night.

I got them down last weekend to check them, and SOMEONE was quite interested.

Over the several days these hung to cure, I squeezed and weighed them a number of times. At one point, they had decreased by 30%, but it had only been a week and they still felt squishy, so I left them up there for a few more days. I sensed that they were drying out, but they smelled OK and I was just thankful that they weren't covered in mold and didn't seem to be rotting. Clearly, my expectations were quite low.

In the end, I took them down and noted that they had lost a LOT more than the recommended 30% in weight. Whoopsie.

Ooops. This salami lost more like half of its weight. Salami jerky?

It appears to be salami, no? Closer to salami than a scary rotting sickness-causing bacterium vessel of death?

I sliced up a link, got out some cheese, and John and I together took a deep breath and then we each took a bite. The verdict? It is pretty tasty! Not as delicious as some of the artisan meats I've tasted here and there, and certainly a little dry. But, I did it. I lived to tell the tale of home-curing salami in a stuffy overdry apartment, although I can't recommend it. Too stressful, and probably not the safest hobby of all time.

Still alive!

At some point in my future, I would love to have the space to buy a small wine refrigerator or otherwise controlled chamber to use for some more curing projects, but for now, I'm very glad that this challenge is over. I'm relieved that there will be no more dry-curing meats in this apartment.

The end product isn't perfect, but it is apparently safe to eat and will be delicious in the little appetizer rolls I plan to make as a part of my final meat feast Charcutepalooza project. THAT I'm very excited about - I invited some friends over this weekend for some meat feasting and Christmas tree trimming, and the menu is ambitious but fun. The plan includes dishes containing salami, bacon, duck confit, and pastrami. There will be wine, pie, and probably board games. I can't wait.

Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Pot Pie

2011-11-28T11:08:00.001-05:00

Ms. Duffy requested that I post my recipe for leftover Thanksgiving turkey pot pies, so here it is! I aim to please.

I have a documented love of the chicken pot pie recipe in the classic Marshall Field's cookbook - it has the requisite sherry in it, and tiny, delicious pearl onions. But, it is also for individual pot pies with only one layer of crust on top, instead of a real "pie" that involves filling encased entirely in crust. I love crust. I think the crust is often the best part of a savory pie. So, with my eleventy thousand million pounds of Thanksgiving turkey leftovers, I wanted to make a turkey pot pie that had tasty pie crust on both sides.

I meant to stick fairly closely to my favorite Marshall Field's recipe, and just dump the filling inside a normal double-crust pie, but then I came across this recipe on the Whole Foods website and liked the sound of all those mushrooms in the pie, so I used those, too. You could also add cooked pieces of potato in the pie if you like that (I didn't), but be careful about the potatoes if you plan to freeze the pot pie; I don't think potatoes freeze all that well because the starches in them change consistency and the dish ends up grainy. I will say that baby red potatoes or fingerlings, which are waxier and lower-starch, are the best choices if you do go that route.

Sadly, I got carried away with the kitchen process and forgot to put the sherry and the peas in my filling for the first pie! Unfortunate, but not a dish-killer - it still turned out fine and I know that John didn't know any better. Thankfully, I doubled the filling recipe and put half of it in my refrigerator for freezing later, so I can add the sherry and the peas to that batch before freezing. If you make these, I definitely recommend using the sherry - it brings out the comforting flavors and makes a pot pie the special comfort food that it is. It is important. Just trust me.

Note that even after making TWO batches of turkey pot pie filling, I still have more than enough turkey to make a pan of turkey enchiladas, so that will be happening later this week!

Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Pot Pie
adapted from this Whole Foods recipe
makes 1 9-inch double-crust pie

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
2 medium leeks, thinly sliced
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
2 large carrots, chopped into a 1/4-inch dice (this is important, because the leeks and celery will cook faster than the carrots unless the carrots are pretty small, and you don't want mushy leeks and celery and raw carrots)
1/2 pound white mushrooms, quartered
1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups turkey or chicken broth
2 cups chopped cooked turkey
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream, divided
1/4 cup sherry
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Dough for 2 9-inch pie crusts (You can buy those frozen ones in the tins if you want, but I can't advocate that.)

Method:

Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large, heavy, high-sided pot. Add the leeks, celery and carrots and cook over medium heat until softened but not browned, about 10 minutes. Transfer the vegetables to a bowl and set aside. Melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter. Add the mushrooms and cook over medium high heat until they have cooked down enough to have given off their moisture and are tender, about 10 minutes. Add the leek mixture to the pot and stir to combine. Add the flour, stir well and cook for 1 minute. Stirring constantly, slowly pour in the broth. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring, until the sauce is very thick. Add the turkey, peas, all but 1 tablespoon of the cream, sherry, thyme, salt and pepper (be sure to taste the filling a LOT, and adjust the salt and pepper as necessary - you will probably need a fair bit of salt) and stir well. Remove the pot from the heat and set is aside to let cool. Around now, preheat the oven to 400°F.

This is two batches of filling, so don't freak out if yours doesn't look this giant.

Prepare the pie crust by rolling out the disc for the bottom crust (or removing them from the freezer).

Crust is very important to me.

Fill the crust with the cooled turkey mixture and moisten the edges with a bit of water. Quickly, so that the bottom crust doesn't get too warm, roll out the remaining crust and place it on top of the pie. (Note that if you are using the frozen pie crusts you can just invert it on top.) Seal the edges of the top crust to the bottom crust, crimping the edges with a fork. Cut a few slits in the top to allow steam to escape. Brush the crust all over with remaining tablespoon of cream. Bake the pie until it is golden brown, the crust is cooked through and the filling is bubbling, about 40 minutes.

Looking good after 40 minutes in the oven.

Set aside to let cool for a few minutes, then cut into slices and serve. You can serve it with leftover stuffing, like I did, if you want!

No peas, sad.

Yum.

Enjoy! Let me know if you make them.

Back to yoga, and a 15K training run

2011-11-27T13:27:00.000-05:00

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving! I did. Sadly, the last of the sausage cornbread stuffing was consumed for breakfast this morning, but I still have other stuffing and loads of turkey. (And some plans to make turkey pot pies.)

Remember the other day when I wrote a whole thing about how, now that the marathon is over, I want to get back into yoga and maybe break 1:37 in the 15K I'm running in a few weeks? Well! I did go to the Saturday morning yoga class at my gym yesterday, and it felt great. I definitely have some of that soreness that you only get from yoga - like, who knew those muscles in between my ribs were even THERE? And the sides of my neck? What is that? Also, this instructor (who, to be fair, I like very much) is into pilates, and she had us do this thing where we got into a forearm plank pose and HOLD IT for hours. Or, what felt like hours. I think it was a minute and a half. Whatever, it was hard. I clearly need to work on my core.

Photo from Yoga Journal. Yeah, it looks easy. You try it.

Then, today I went for a run in Central Park - the weather is amazing! I will say to all of the people out there running in tights, compression shirts, fleece jackets, hats, and gloves - WHAT, pray tell, are you planning to wear when the temperature drops to real winter levels? It is 60 degrees today. I wore shorts and was crazy sweating in a lightweight long-sleeved tech shirt (my NYC marathon one, obviously) - I would have been fine in a short-sleeved tee. I don't even go from capris to tights unless it is sub-30 degrees, and I only wore my compression top a few times last year when it was below 20.

Anyway, my plan for this run was to run most of the course for the upcoming NYRR Ted Corbit 15K, at or below my 10:30/mile goal pace (finishing in about 1:37). John and I ran 5 miles on Thanksgiving morning at 10:09/mile pace, so I thought I could probably do it - the course he chose by his parents' house in Connecticut was hillier than Central Park.

I did it, and then some! I'm sure it had everything to do with the awesome weather (and the sausage stuffing I ate for breakfast?), but I felt great on this run. I had a little bit of hip pain around mile 6, but I was able to push through it. My average overall pace was 9:59/mile. I can definitely break 1:37 for this distance, if the weather is reasonable and my hips hold up. I'm on it.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	1:32:58.5	9.30	9:59.8
1	9:42.3	1.00	9:42.3
2	9:58.3	1.00	9:58.3
3	10:12.4	1.00	10:12.4
4	9:53.4	1.00	9:53.4
5	10:12.8	1.00	10:12.8
6	10:28.9	1.00	10:28.9
7	9:42.5	1.00	9:42.5
8	10:20.3	1.00	10:20.3
9	9:31.2	1.00	9:31.2
10	2:56.0	0.30	9:45.5

The kitchen smells like...

2011-11-22T10:32:00.000-05:00

Salami!

Oh, wait. Right. That smell is not coming from the kitchen. Its origin is the corner of our bedroom, which is where, last weekend, I hung about 2 pounds of freshly-stuffed salamis to dry-cure! I have an entire Charcutepalooza blog post coming up about that adventure; the project is due on December 1st, but I'm not sure yet if the salamis will be ready by then. I got a little behind on that one because, well, I ran a marathon.

The salami wasn't the only thing happening in my kitchen over the weekend. I also put some fresh pork belly in a cure to make bacon, and ordered a bunch of duck legs from D'Artagnan so that I can get rolling on a duck confit. I'm planning the final meat feast Charcutepalooza project, and hopefully this year of meat will go out with a bang.

In addition to the various meat projects, I got started on the few dishes I'm making for John's family Thanksgiving up in Connecticut. I'm making his favorite sweet potato casserole dish, plus a cornbread and sausage stuffing and a sticky toffee pudding. Note that, in case you didn't know, it's really a cake, just like a Boston Cream Pie is really a cake. I tend to think that the food namers should have been more clear.

I was going to make a chocolate meringue pie, because it is the one my mom always makes for holidays (and I love it so), but, as much as I love it - and I'd take this pie over pumpkin ANY DAY - she talked me out of it. I would have had to make it a few days in advance, and it would likely be soggy and less tasty by Thursday. Also, the meringue is definitely a "day of" kind of thing, and putting that together on Thursday morning at John's parents' place before leaving for his aunt and uncle's house started to seem like a lot of work. So I nixed it.

That's fine, though, because it means that I can make a chocolate meringue pie at home next weekend, and John and I can enjoy it all alone!

Books I've Read: Ten Thousand Saints

2011-11-18T11:23:00.000-05:00

by Eleanor Henderson

I read Stacey D'Erasmo's review of Ten Thousand Saints in the New York Times this summer, and I knew I wanted to read this book. Coming of age tale that takes place partly in New York's late-1980's East Village music scene? Yes, please.

I will read pretty much any novel that is set in New York, and even if I don't love it, I usually enjoy the portions that take place in this fair city. I like knowing where things are, and being able to visualize the city blocks, the people, the scenes. If novels were ever set in my hometown, Harrisburg, Illinois, I might feel a similar connection, or if I ever read anything set at Vanderbilt University or Chicago (I lived there for over a year in 2000-2001). But they aren't, and I haven't, so New York is where my reads tend to take place. If I have a bunch of novels lying around on my shelf or in my Kindle, and one of them is based in New York City, that's the one I'll put at the top of the heap, every time.

Ten Thousand Saints is beautiful and intense and imperfect. It does suffer from some unfortunate editorial mistakes (some parts go on and on, to the detriment of the lovely descriptions of characters, time, and place), but I thought it was a vividly wonderful, wild ride. I particularly liked the ending, which was a little messy and a little sentimental, like life, like family, like teenager-ness.

Foo Fighters @ Madison Square Garden, 11.13.2011

2011-11-16T12:31:00.000-05:00

As a friend of mine once told me, which I have repeated ever since, "Some people are the pineapples, and some people are the Jello." I'm a Jello. My husband is a pineapple. Spending eight years with a pineapple person has resulted in my views on certain things, mostly things on which I had no firm opinions in the first place, molding to conform to his. It is hard to stand your ground when, (1) you don't really care in the first place and (2) you are faced with that much enthusiasm!

So, the Foo Fighters are John's favorite band, and through the years I have watched myself go from an apathetic observer to a full-blown fangirl (my policies toward the Yankees have evolved similarly). He always wants to see the Foo Fighters' live shows when they come to town, and I'm so glad that I overcame my initial NO TOO LOUD TOO MUCH SCREAMING reaction and went along when we first went together a few years ago (Sunday's was the second show of theirs I've seen). I'm a convert. Now I would never miss a Foo Fighters tour.

The Foo Fighters are a great live rock band (no, not as good as Wilco), and Dave Grohl is incredible. As Mike Ness of Social Distortion said during his band's opening set on Sunday, "Foo Fighters don't f*ck around." They rocked for three hours, past midnight, and played all the old favorites, together with some of their newer stuff. It was a late night, but the show was absolutely worth the residual exhaustion I've been dealing with all week.

Oh, and they brought out special guest Joan Jett (whoa!) for an amazing rendition of "Bad Reputation."

Here's a write-up and some fantastic concert photographs, from Brooklyn Vegan.

And here's a set list:

Bridge Burning
Rope
The Pretender
My Hero
Learn to Fly
White Limo
Arlandria
Breakout
Cold Day in the Sun
Stacked Actors
Walk
Monkey Wrench
Let It Die
These Days
This is a Call
In the Flesh (Pink Floyd cover)
All My Life

---

Wheels (Dave Grohl acoustic)
Best of You (Dave Grohl acoustic)
Times Like These (Dave Grohl solo acoustic into full band)
Dear Rosemary (with Bob Mould)
Breakdown (Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers cover) (with Bob Mould)
Bad Reputation (Joan Jett cover) (with Joan Jett)
Everlong

Life after marathon

2011-11-14T17:47:00.000-05:00

This weekend I spent some time thinking about my running goals now that the marathon is over. I really do feel good about the race I ran on November 6th, but right now I am leaning against running the marathon in 2012. I will have guaranteed entry, so I can decide later, and may defer until 2013. In the short term, I plan to take this winter to work on some other things. Here are some ideas:

(1) First, I am trying to figure out what is happening in my hip. Whether that means that I will see a sports medicine doctor or not has yet to be decided, but I ran 6 miles on Sunday and I felt just a little discomfort. Nothing like the shooting pain that I felt on marathon day, so I’m hopeful that it will just go away with the cutback in running mileage and more stretching and core work, which leads me to the next point.

(2) This comes up all the time, but I really want to get back into doing regular yoga and be better about stretching. I used to do this, and the result was that I felt stronger and more balanced, so I am making this a priority once again. (Sheepish admission: If you have been reading a while you know this is a common theme for me.) The root of my commitment problem with yoga is that for a long while the only weeknight yoga class at my gym was at 6PM, and it was impossible for me to get there in time due to my workplace’s old strict “butt in the chair until 6PM” rule. I believe that the gym has now added some 7PM classes, which should be OK. My commute is pretty awful, but thankfully my workplace recently instituted a more flexible departure time policy, so if I have to make a class it will no longer be a big deal to leave a few minutes early. There is also a Saturday morning class, but I never got into a groove with that instructor. I’m going to give her another chance, though.

(3) As a people, runners often neglect core training and weight-lifting, which I know can lead to bad posture and open the door for injury. During the marathon, I could feel a LOT of tension in my neck and shoulders. So, I am revisiting my long-abandoned plan from the summer to do core work and weight-lifting once per week. In theme with my yoga point above, the main reason I fell off the weigh-lifting wagon is that it takes me an hour to get to the gym from my office, but I think if I make and stick to a weekly schedule it will help. I’m going to start with this 'TONE" program, which the trainer at our gym posts once per week.

(4) I am running the New York Road Runners’ Jingle Bell Jog (4 miles) in Brooklyn on December 10. Last year’s time was 43:45 (10:56/mile). I don’t have a time goal for this race. I am just running it for fun, because I remember it being quite cold and impossibly crowded with crazy little kids and jingle bells rolling all over the road. Plus, a friend of mine is trying to start running, and I am running this race to support her and keep her company. That, and it is one of the final two races I need to complete in order to guarantee my entry to the 2012 NYC Marathon!

(5) My last NYRR race of 2011 will be the Ted Corbitt 15K, in Central Park on December 17. Last year’s time was 1:42:15 (11:01/mile). I would really like to run this in 1:37 (about 10:30/mile), but I know that’s a pretty huge jump. My plan between now and then is to try to train at the 10:30/mile pace for my longer runs, in addition to doing some weeknight hill and speed workouts.

(6) Finally, through the winter I want to stay in half-marathon shape, which to me means running 25-30 miles per week, including long runs of 10-14 miles on the weekends. I have my eye on an early spring half-marathon --possibly the Mercedes Half-Marathon in Birmingham, Alabama on February 12--and I would love to finish in between 2 hours and 2:15. My brother and his wife are expecting a baby in January (exciting!!), so depending on what happens with their schedule once my new baby niece makes her much-anticipated debut, I'll definitely be planning a meet-and-greet visit to Chicago around some time in February. I'm sure it will all work out.

I can't plan past that, but I will see how the winter goes and then decide if I have another marathon in me! A friend of mine told me today that the pain memory dulls with time.

Race Report: ING New York City Marathon (!!!)

2011-11-11T20:20:00.003-05:00

Picture taken at the race expo.

Sunday, November 6, 2011 was one of the best days of my life. Thinking back on it, I still can’t believe I accomplished what I did, and I feel both exhilarated because I ran a MARATHON and saddened because I will never again run my *first* marathon. If I ever even run another marathon, which, let’s face it, at this point, is a big fat maybe.

My adventure with this marathon started, subtly, when my dad ran the ING New York City Marathon in 2008. John, my mom, and I cheered for him, and I remember being incredibly proud – and he finished in a rocking 4:03! The next spring we went up to Boston to cheer for him in the Boston Marathon, and although he didn’t have a great race there, I was inspired. That spring, I started running for one minute, then walking for two minutes, repeating the cycle until I had been on the move for half an hour. It was hard for me, but eventually I could run, slowly, for the entire 30 minutes. In July of 2009, my dad came out to run with me in my first New York Road Runners (NYRR) race – the four-mile Run for Central Park. My goal for that first race was to finish with an average pace lower than 12 minutes/mile, and I finished in 45:44, an average pace of 11:26/mile. Afterward, my dad took off and ran six more miles.

I was hooked. I continued to run shorter NYRR races in 2010, not because I was trying to qualify for the marathon through its "9+1" program, but because I like to get out there and run races alongside other runners. I like the community of it, and I like getting a bib and a shirt and maybe a medal. My first "longer" race was the CARA Lakefront 10 in Chicago in the spring of 2010. My dad and brother both kindly stuck with me at my slower-than-them pace for the entire run, and we had a great time! That year, before I knew it I had run six NYRR races, and after I ran the Philadelphia Half-Marathon in November 2010 (my first of that distance), I decided to bang out three more NYRR runs and volunteer once for guaranteed entry into the 2011 ING New York City Marathon. I talked about it with my dad, and he said he wanted to do the race with me - it would be his seventh marathon.

In two short years I have transformed myself from a huffer-puffer who had to train quite seriously for that little four-miler into a marathoner. A marathoner! It's crazy! I'm still a slower runner, but considering that I have not been doing this all that long, I'm proud of my accomplishments.

Leading up to last Sunday's marathon, I felt fine about my mileage and training, at least through September. After some scary hip pain back in August (this is foreshadowing, so remember that!), I had some good longer runs and felt great about my first 20-miler, done right before I hopped on a plane for a two-week business trip to India. I missed hardly any runs, and I ran about 120 miles that month. In October, my training didn't go so well, partly because of the business trip. My mileage was about the same, but I didn't feel as good about it. My last long run was difficult, and I was extremely nervous about my taper.

Last weekend I was anxious, but I felt ready. My goal was only to finish the race on my own two feet, and I joked about trying to beat Al Roker (his time last year was around 7 hours), but I knew that based on my training run pace I could finish in between 5 hours and 5:15. I thought if I had an amazing race day, I could beat 5 hours. In the end, I didn't break 5 hours, but I still had an amazing race day.

Saturday I had a perfectly normal WHAT TO WEAR WHAT TO WEAR freak-out, and decided I needed to get to Lululemon ASAP to buy the exact shirt I had planned on wearing, but with short sleeves. After that errand I went for Patsy's pizza with my parents, then spent the afternoon packing my bag, relaxing, and drinking a ton of water before having a pasta dinner at Paola's with my parents and John. I slept fine on Saturday night and woke up really excited to get this marathon show on the road.

Tracy hired a car service and picked up me and my dad, and we zoomed down the FDR to the Staten Island Ferry terminal. Apparently our driver misunderstood, because when he passed the ferry terminal and headed toward the tunnel to Brooklyn, we had to stop him - he thought we wanted him to drive us all the way to Staten Island!

At the Staten Island ferry in our awesome pre-race donation clothes. John's family gave me quite the hard time for donating that Milford Academy sweatshirt, but considering no one had worn it since approximately 1995 and it has been sitting in John's (and later, our) apartment taking up space since 2001, I stand by my decision to donate it. I picked up that brown fleece blanket for $19.95.

The ferry and bus rides to the start village were longer than I expected, but we arrived in plenty of time. Tracy and Dad had different bib colors than mine, but my bib number was the highest, so we planned to stick together and to just go to my corral for the start. This worked out just fine - the rules allow runners racing together to enter the corral of the person with the highest bib number. When we got there, we found a place to relax in the Orange village. (Aside: I decided, after much back-and-forth, to stick with the long-sleeved shirt, but having the option of the short-sleeved one made me feel better.)

Dad's trying not to be nervous.

With the Verrazano Bridge in the background. Ready!

We eventually headed to the Orange corrals, where I snapped this awesome picture of Tracy (if you read her blog you've already seen it, but I die laughing every time I look at it, so I'm sharing it with you again). I love the look on her face!

"Born to Hunt, Forced to Work."

There was more waiting around, and then we were off and running. As we crossed the Verrazano Bridge, I looked to my left at Manhattan and said something about how it looked REALLY FAR AWAY. It took my breath away. I said "wow" over and over again. It was an incredible experience - there are so many runners! I felt great the entire way over that bridge and all the way up through Brooklyn. Our pace was steady, and we walked through about every other water stop. The water stops were tricky - we worried we would lose each other, but it all worked out. The Brooklyn crowds were fantastic - people cheering the whole way (until Williamsburg, which was mostly quiet and pretty much sucked because by then I was OVER Brooklyn and ready to get to Queens and Manhattan already), yelling our names, giving high-fives. If you ever run a marathon, absolutely put your name on your shirt.

"That's my dad -->;"
"<-- That's my daughter"
(Brightroom photo)

My friends C. and S. (their photo below) popped up around Mile 6 - check out S.'s awesome sparkly top hat.

Thanks, guys! Love the sign. Note the St. Louis Cardinals stickers!

Then, my friend Jean from work had a bright pink sign and was cheering around Mile 8 in Ft. Green. She was super excited to see us, screaming and jumping up and down, so seeing her was fun, too.

Thanks, Jean! I had no trouble picking out this extremely bright sign.

At this point, we were all feeling great and moving right along, but after we passed Jean and headed into the boring part of north Brooklyn toward the Pulaski Bridge, I started to feel like I was ready for something new. Finally we made it to Queens, where we spotted TK! Hooray - so many spectators came out to support us.

The Queensboro Bridge is as loooooooong as you have read and heard elsewhere. I had run it a few times before the race, so I was marginally prepared, but it is dark and weird in there! It may have seemed longer to me because I was really excited to see John and the rest of our fan crew on First Avenue, but it felt like ages before we crested the bridge hill and made it out and into Manhattan. It was also around this point, Mile 16, that I started having some serious concerns about a sharp nerve-type of hurt in the back of my right hip, deep inside my buttcheek. I'm pretty sure it is the same pain I had back in August, but I hadn't felt it in months. I have no idea why it sprang up right then, but I tried to bury it and just kept on going. The effect of this was that I had to limp for the last 10 miles of the marathon, and I stopped a few times to stretch and shake it out, but that's OK. I made it! I was having a life experience and didn't want to miss it because of some dumb pain in my butt.

We stopped for a quick picture at 90th Street and First Avenue, where John and my mom had been camped out all day with John's sister and parents, my uncle Paul (my dad's brother), my friend Jacki, and some other friends. We had a huge spectator fan crowd!

I only carried three Gu gels with me from the start, so at this point it was my MAIN FOCUS to get the rest of my Gus from John. You can see that I'm clutching them desperately in my left hand. Haha!

Our backs as we continue up First Avenue.

After we saw them, the two miles to the Bronx were the most psychologically difficult for me. My hip hurt, and I kept thinking that I still had EIGHT miles to go, which is a long way. I thought that there was no way I was doing this to myself again. But, then, we crossed over the Willis Avenue Bridge to the tune of some awesome bagpipers, then ran right into a really LOUD rapper at Mile 20. "Welcome to the Bronx," he yelled, "TARA, LARRY!" Loved him. Thanks, buddy.

The Bronx has too many awkward turns, but before I knew it we were back in Harlem heading toward Marcus Garvey Park. This part of the race is kind of a blur - I had to walk a lot, and I stopped again to stretch out my hip. By the time we got to 110th Street on Fifth Avenue I was in a world of hurt, but then I saw some of my book club friends screaming their faces off at 99th Street, and John and our fan crew again at 94th Street.

Jacki, John, and his parents. Jacki brought the most amazing pirate balloon!

A close-up of that pirate balloon. Everyone deserves a day in his or her life in which someone brings a pirate balloon.

Coming down Fifth Avenue! We are definitely faking those smiles.

When we entered the park I knew I was home free. I just put my head down and focused on putting one foot in front of the other - I had run that stretch a thousand million times before! I knew all the hills and turns! Two miles - no big deal. (Ha.)

In spite of being completely physically and emotionally drained, I started getting really, REALLY excited about the distance I had covered (and, let's be real, about that damn race being over already). Tracy was feeling better than I and had pulled a few minutes ahead at this point, and Dad and I stopped to walk one last time on Central Park South. The crowd down there was great - encouraging and LOUD, which was just what I needed. When we reentered the park, I kept my head held up as high as I could, and when I saw the tiniest bit of the orange finish line I screamed out, "I see it I see it!"

Crossing the finish line in Central Park, 5 hours and 11 minutes after starting in Staten Island, I felt relief that it was over, but also elation and deep, true happiness.

That was before we got into the thick of the shitshow that is the finish area, and commenced a death shuffle that took us not only the fifteen blocks up to get my checked back from the UPS truck, but also across the park and ten more blocks north all the way up, on foot, to a bar on Second Avenue at 89th Street. There were no cabs or buses, so we just death-shuffled home. It was awesome when we finally got to the bar, though, because all our friends and family were there, and everyone in the bar, including random strangers just trying to watch some football, cheered for us. I'll never forget it.

I look tired. John looks like he's had a few drinks.

And then, to top it all off, these were waiting for me at home.

John said they were from our cats, Mack and Mabel, but I wonder about that.

What a day. Maybe I *will* do it again.

Books I've Read: Cutting for Stone

2011-11-08T21:40:00.000-05:00

by Abraham Verghese

Well, I have had a draft of this post sitting in Blogger for a week, and although I KNOW I owe this blogging project of mine a few race reports, including the one on the ING New York City Marathon (!!!), this one needed to get published and those are coming along.

I read Cutting for Stone because it was chosen for my new book club, so I can't really discuss it without discussing my history with book clubs and how this fantastic new book club came into my life.

Within the first year that I moved to New York, way back in 2002, my dear friend from college, S., and I decided that we should start a book club. It began with a group of random folks that she and I kind of knew through acquaintances and work and whatever, and our first book was The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon. That was all cool for a few years, until a dissenter among us unilaterally decided that he wanted our book club - the one that I founded with S., who is a straight lady like me - to consist exclusively of gay men (bear with me, yes, this really happened, and yes, it was crazy). He planned a double secret meeting with several of the guys in our group. S. and I weren't invited, but one of her friends went and wondered where we were (he wasn't tight with the dissenter and didn't realize until he got there that we had been excluded). The dissenter giggled and was all, "hee hee hee, I didn't invite them, I want the group to be ALL BOYS hee hee hee." S.'s friend stuck around briefly, but then left, and promptly told us all about it.

So, we three branched out on our own, inviting new friends. The group grew and changed for several more years, and as much as I love all of the people it brought into my life, over the spring it sort of fizzled. The last book we all agreed to read was Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, and although I read it, we never met to discuss it.

Around the same time, I decided to train for my first marathon, and as a part of that adventure I knew I would need some support in the form of some new running friends, so I started reaching out to like-minded people through their blogs and on Twitter. That's how I met Tracy, who is, luckily for me, also a reader. When we started running together she talked a lot about her book club, which was reading Room at the time (and that I had already read and really liked). She was generous enough to indulge me when I invited myself to their next meeting.

The women in this group, all runners, all Tweeters, all wine and food lovers, are amazing. They were so fun and welcoming, and I am incredibly thankful that I was able to sneak in just before the group closed to more new people. I am even more thankful that most of them were able to come out and cheer for me during my very first ever marathon last weekend, because when I heard them screaming my name on Fifth Avenue and 99th Street when that hill was putting the hurt on me and my limping body and bummed-out hip, I smiled! It was a bright spot in a dark mile. So, THANKS, ladies! You're awesome.

So, new book club, some new friends, yahoo! Now, to the book.

I tried, but I just could not finish Cutting for Stone before our last meeting. In the end a bunch of other people were about halfway through, as well, so I wasn't alone. I also had already looked online for the ending and knew what would happen, but, as I discussed in the group, knowing the ending never spoils a book for me - I like to know! It doesn't ruin the reading experience for me, and I will almost always finish the book anyway. My mom is the same way. We don't like surprises. Anyway, I did finish it last week.

This book has a sloooooooow start, but it does get better. Until it doesn't anymore. What does that mean? Well, there are wonderful characters at the Missing hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that is the setting for the bulk of the story, but the narrator, Marion, one in a set of twin brothers born there, is not wonderful. He is the least interesting person in the book, in my opinion. Shiva, the other brother, is interesting, as are their adoptive parents and a number of the supporting characters (who didn't want to know more about that Staff Probationer?!). Marion, though, blah.

The descriptions of the patients at the hospital and the political goings-on in Ethiopia during the time setting are also very good, and I actually loved the part of the book when Marion goes to New York for a medical internship in the Bronx.

But, without exception, all of the major plot points were contrived. I mean, he randomly bumps into his long-lost father in an American hospital? Sure. He encounters an old Ethiopian acquaintance - very important for a critical plot turn - in Boston, where he doesn't live, just because he was there for a work thing and decided on a whim to go to some Ethiopian restaurant a cab driver told him about? Uh-huh. There's more, but you get the point. It was all too forced, and I thought the end was pretty weak. It reminded me a lot of The Kite Runner, to which I had a similar reaction.

In the end, I'm glad I read it, despite the annoying parts. Has anyone else read this book? Let me know in the comments!

I am running a marathon tomorrow

2011-11-05T17:06:00.000-04:00

My sign says:
TARA
That's my dad! -->

I am running my first marathon tomorrow! This is a Very. Big. Deal.

My dad is running with me, as is Tracy.

Wish us luck!

Furry Friday: Home from India

2011-10-21T10:04:00.000-04:00

I missed these rascals when I was away!

When I arrived home on Friday morning last week, after my epic journey from Pune to Mumbai, Mumbai to Newark, and finally Newark to the Upper East Side, I barely made it home in time to see John before he left for work. He and the cats were in the middle of their morning routine, and for a second I felt really tired and lost and like I was intruding. So, I said hello, and after he left I went for a little jet-lag battle run to try to get back in the groove of home.

When I returned to the apartment the second time, at first the cats ignored me, but they eventually warmed up and wanted to hang out with me on the couch. Mack checked in on what I was reading on the Kindle, and Mable inspected the embroidered pillow cover souvenir I brought home from India. They made me feel better and I was enormously glad to be home.

Want to hear a tiny bit more about this trip? Ok. Let's talk about "security."

First of all, the security situation for business travelers - well, all travelers - in India is intense, understandably so after the many attacks on hotels and areas frequented by westerners.

Every time anyone enters the hotel (I stay in the Westin Pune Koregaon Park) by car, security guards make the driver of the car pop the trunk and hood, and they look around for bombs. They also look under the cars. Every time. Then, once one gets out of the car to go in, all bags and purses are put through an airport-type scanner, and the person has to walk through a metal detector AND get wanded. This procedure is particularly strange for women, because the security guards want women to go into this silly little make-shift screened-off area (everyone can see into it, and they don't even close the door) to get wanded. They don't touch us or make us take off any clothing, so I think the screen is unnecessary. Toward the end of the stay, I would just tell the guard that she could do the wanding out in the open. It wasn't a big deal, but I think they thought it was an odd request. Whatever.

The airport security in Mumbai is also remarkable. Upon arrival in the domestic terminal, in order to transfer to the international terminal, travelers must go through a passport check, bag scan, metal detector, and pat-down to exit the domestic terminal and board a bus. I wouldn't mind this if it were reasonable, but the transfer bus drops passengers outside the check-in area of the international terminal, so everyone on the bus is leaving the secure part of the airport, anyway! The bus drops off people out front of the airport, just like anyone else who is arriving, and you have to start all over again with the check-in and security process. They then check your passport and visa in immigration - a requirement to depart the country - and you have to go through another passport check, bag scan, metal detector, and pat-down. Then, there is ANOTHER scan and passport check to get through to the departure gate, together with extra restrictions on flights going to the United States (have to remove shoes, no bottled water allowed). It is quite a process, making me glad that I had a long layover before my flight home.

Oh, and it is worth mentioning that the people doing these checks aren't your standard TSA grumps. They have huge guns.

The airport is one thing - invasive and overzealous, but, as I said above, whatever. I can handle it for the few times a year I go to India. But, the extra screening at the hotel is annoying and did not make me feel safer.

Life just kind of empties out
Less a deluge than a drought
Less a giant mushroom cloud
Than an unexploded shell
Inside a cell
Of the Lennox Hotel

Security annoyance rant over.

That song also speaks to how isolating business travel can sometimes feel. Don't take this the wrong way; I am thankful that my job has provided me the opportunity to travel to India. I love the culture and the food and the people I work with there. But, but. It is hard to be away from home for so long - I was away for almost two weeks - and in the past I have been essentially alone most of the time I was away. By now I've made some friends in Pune, and this time I traveled with a colleague, which make it a ton more fun, but the hotel (and running on that damn treadmill!) can still be lonely.

My colleague and I made the best of it, though!

This was her first trip to India, so we went back to Karla Caves, where I visited in 2009, and another cave nearby. These are some of my pictures from last time - the main difference between my 2009 visit and this last one was that last time I went in August, monsoon season, and everything was decidedly greener than it was in October.

I find this hilarious. Indians pay Rs. 5 (about $.10) to get in, but "foreigners" like me have to pay around $2!!

Outside Karla Caves. These Buddhist cave temples were carved, by hand, out of the rock sometime in the 2nd century B.C. The monks used the cells on the left for living and meditation. The entrance to the main temple is on the right.

Entrance to the main temple. The carvings here are in remarkable condition.

Another detail of the carvings in the entrance to the temple.

The vaulted interior in the main temple at Karla Caves, with galleries and columns on each side and a large stupa in the center. The light comes in from large windows, so the cave is beautifully lit. So cool.

View from inside, back toward the entrance.

Bells on the temple outside.

We hiked up this path to get to the caves.

On the ride home, we enjoyed wada pav (pronounced 'wad-uh-pow'), which I had asked our driver to pick up for us on the way out of town. I'm told is the official street food of Maharashtra. It is a kind of fried vegetarian burger thing, on an amazing soft Portuguese sweet roll. It comes with chutney and onions, and it is DELICIOUS.

My coworker took some new photographs on our recent trip so I'll be sure to try to post some of those when she has time to send them over!

Books I've Read: A Race Like No Other

2011-10-17T15:37:00.000-04:00

by Liz Robbins

The marathon in less than THREE WEEKS. Aaah!

Not long ago, I was chatting with a woman at work who ran the ING NYC Marathon last year, also her first marathon, and she recommended that I read A Race Like No Other now that I'm in the final stretch of marathon training. I ordered it right away - who doesn't love an inspirational running book to get pumped for the final long runs in a training cycle? (Related: I actually received 2 paperback copies, not sure if this was due to my mistakenly overexcited ordering or Amazon's generosity, but I sent the extra to my dad.)

I read almost the entire book on a plane ride home from India last Thursday night. I traveled there for business over two weeks near the end of "monster month," precisely when I needed to be maintaining the weekly mileage I had been building up since beginning my training program in July. Because it isn't safe to run alone outside in the area I visit for work, when I signed up for this trip I knew I was looking at a lot of treadmill time. Thankfully it was over a cut-back long run weekend, so I know it could have been worse. It was not good, though.

I was able to do an almost 10-mile run on the treadmill over the weekend, but during the weeks I failed miserably at keeping up my mileage. Jet-lag, taking an anti-malarial (which I MUST do, mosquitoes love me), and being busy at work just knocked me out and I felt exhausted during the entire trip, not to mention I strongly dislike (read: HATE IT HATE IT SO MUCH) running on a treadmill. I only ran 4 times while I was there, and, feeling guilty about being a crap runner, decided that reading this book was the next best thing to actually training.

The author writes about different runners' experiences and describes each mile of the marathon, a structure I really enjoyed. Reading about it, I got emotional and EXCITED about the upcoming race, and am here to testify that this book was just the kick in the pants I needed. Once I landed back in New York I went running on Friday AND Saturday AND Sunday. Win! Those shorter Friday and Saturday runs may have been ill-advised considering my last 20-mile training run was on Sunday, but I feel more confident knowing that I made up a little bit of the mileage I missed while in India. My last pre-taper long run was tough - I was tired - but it is done!

Charcutepalooza October Challenge: Rillettes, and the NYCWFF Charcuterie 101 event

2011-10-15T20:45:00.000-04:00

Since I committed this year to Charcutepalooza, in addition to participating in the various meat challenges every month, I have also made an effort to try new charcuterie in restaurants and shops. I tried a weird seafood terrine at The Mooring during our trip to Newport, RI, and was sure to order the rillettes at Husk in Charleston, SC. (And I just realized that I never published my restaurant notes from September, which include all the great places we tried on our Labor Day trip to Charleston and Kiawah Island, SC, so I'll do that soon!)

So, in the spirit of the "Year of Meat," I bought tickets to the New York City Wine & Food Festival (NYCWFF) "Charcuterie 101" event at the Macelleria restaurant, sponsored partly by D'Artagnan, waaaaaaay in advance. At the time I didn't know that this month's challenge (link to Mrs. Wheelbarrow's October challenge page is here) would be to make rillettes or a galantine, both of which we got to try at the event! It was all very timely, and a lot of fun.

John and I showed up right at noon and got on line to go in, and once they opened the doors I headed straight for a table right beside the chef's demonstration station, so that I could have a great view. Chef Pierre Landet had a dead duck and a KitchenAid laid out on his table, so I knew we were in for something good.

Duck, duck.

We got to watch the chef remove the entire skin of the duck in ONE PIECE, season and blend the meat filling for a galantine, stuff the skin with the meat and foie gras, and then tie and prepare it to be poached. It was incredible, considering he did all of this in about an hour...just removing the skin from a duck in one piece would have taken me a whole day and likely several tries. He had another galantine already prepared for us to try, and gave the one he had prepped to the restaurant for them to cook and serve later.

Pierre Moreira of D'Artagnan talked about charcuterie and led us through a tasting of all kinds of treats:

Our table.

Because of my plan to make rillettes this month, I paid special attention to the rillettes they gave us to try:

No idea why I am so shiny, but those rillettes were DELICIOUS. Much better than mine.

The event was fantastic, and we left full of meats and dreams of making rillettes at home.

The problem was that after this event on October 1st, I was away on business for almost two full weeks, and didn't get back to New York until Friday morning, October 14th. So, the charcuterie treats we so enjoyed were a distant memory by the time I started on this project, and I had only one day to get it together to make the rillettes before today's deadline. Eeek! Time was tight. I bought the meat and fat yesterday and got right to work, seasoning the mixture and letting it sit for an hour or so, and starting the cooking process only this morning. But, luckily, this project was relatively easy and came together in a few hours, with a few additional hours of refrigeration.

Pork and fat simmering on the stove, with just a little salt, sherry, garlic, and bay.

Draining the meat bits from the poaching liquid.

A quick spin in the food processor shredded the meat and fat right up, into a spread-like product.

One would think that after almost 10 months and as many Charcutepalooza challenges, that by now I would have acquired some lovely little serving bowls and ramekins and such. Alas, no. I spooned my tasty little rillettes - I halved the recipe after the seafood mousseline experience, for which I made the equivalent of a football of seafoody charcuterie that wasn't all that tasty after a while - into a plastic container. All of my attractive bowls and things were way too big. Oh, well. The rillettes still taste really, truly good and this way John and I don't have to feel like we must eat charcuterie for weeks on end until whatever project at hand is consumed.

Although, this would have been a good project to make extra and freeze some for a future dinner party or company, and I plan to do just that as soon as I get some reasonable containers! One blogger whose write-up I read today packed hers in cute half-pint Ball jars, which I covet. Some of those might be in my future.

The final product: rillettes with cornichons and butter crackers.

I served my rillettes on buttery crackers, with some tangy cornichons from the delightful pickle bar at Fairway. This type of meaty charcuterie magic appetizer is the reason I committed to Charcutepalooza - dips and spreads and sausages and cured slices of meat and things like this are some of my great food loves, and it is such a joy to make them myself. I loved the rillettes challenge, even though I was tight on time.

Oh, and for the sake of comparison, I'll readily admit that the rillettes served at the D'Artagnan NYCWFF event at Macelleria were better than mine! I am ok with this. They are professionals, and I'm a super beginner. Mine were pretty good, though.

John enjoys the rillettes. Look at that grin!

Furry Friday: Sleepy time

2011-09-30T08:33:00.000-04:00

I'm leaving for a business trip to India this weekend, and every time I do this the cats take over my part of our bed. Mack was already practicing up during a nap a few weekends ago.

John might not like that I put this sleeping picture up on the internet. At least he isn't obviously snoring or drooling, which happens.

Books I've Read: American Gods

2011-09-29T11:03:00.000-04:00

by Neil Gaiman

Because I don't know where to start with this one, from American Gods' Wikipedia page (embarrassing reference, I'm obviously at a loss):

The central premise of the novel is that gods and mythological creatures exist because people believe in them. Immigrants to the United States brought with them dwarves, elves, leprechauns, and other spirits and gods. However, the power of these mythological beings has diminished as people's beliefs wane. New gods have arisen, reflecting America's obsessions with media, celebrity, technology, and drugs, among others.

Sounds interesting, right? It is that, but I didn't love it. I am, however, happy to note that American Gods is in the works to become an HBO series. That I might love.

My favorite parts of this novel were when the characters find themselves visiting various roadside attractions - the gods like them because they are "places of power" - including the House on the Rock in Wisconsin, the geographical center of the lower 48 states, in Kansas, and Rock City near Chattanooga. I loved that the main character, Shadow, spends some time working in a funeral home in Cairo (pronounced Kay-Ro!), Illinois, which is in southern Illinois a little over an hour's drive from my hometown. I also really enjoyed reading about the small town of Lakeside and the sub-plot story of what happened there. These felt like real "America" to me, and Gaiman's depiction of these places and characters is brilliant.

The concept for this novel is fascinating, without qualification. The gods in their American incarnations are interesting and, at times, amusing. But...and here we go with the parts that bugged me...why did the author choose to leave out the Christian God, Jesus, or even Muhammed and the like? Some Hindu gods show up, like Ganesh, but I thought it was odd that some of the big guys weren't mentioned. And why is Shadow, the main character, so passive? He does all of these crazy things without question or emotion? Maybe I missed something or the power of the deal he made with Wednesday at the beginning of the story is to blame, and Gaiman hints, but only hints, at Shadow's true nature (of being a god or god-like himself), but I think this unresolved question discredits the character and makes him a frustrating study. The plot also meanders too much in the middle, and although I liked the ending, it wasn't satisfying. Another problem is the sub-plot with Shadow's [un]dead wife following him around, which I thought was distracting and strange.

I have been reading this book for-EVER, so I was happy to see it end this morning on my commute to work. It is certainly imaginative and original, and Gaiman is a talented storyteller, but the novel as a whole falls short. I'm glad I read it, but equally glad to know how it ends and to be moving on.

Race Report: NYRR 18-mile Marathon Tune-Up

2011-09-26T16:38:00.000-04:00

Warning in advance that this post is a little melodramatic.

I had a minor panic attack on Saturday afternoon, and then a ridiculous anxiety-induced meltdown on Sunday morning before the NYRR 18-mile Marathon Tune-Up run. The 18-mile distance, coupled with the hills of Central Park, crawled into my head early in the marathon training process and has been spooking me ever since. I've been trying to trace the source of this fear of an 18-miler, and it could be because John and I live near the 18 mile marker for the NYC marathon (which is on First Avenue uptown). We always go over there to cheer for the runners on marathon day, and although some of them still look great at 18 miles, many don't.

It turned out, as it always does, that panic was not required to prepare for this race. The run was fine. Hard, but fine. It didn't start out that way, though.

I woke up and left my apartment on time, but I was all-caps, balls-to-the-wall FREAKING OUT. I went through my normal pre-long-run ritual with water, coffee, grapes and a croissant, and then hurried over to the start area near 102nd Street in the park, where I was supposed to meet the lovely Tracy near baggage check at ten minutes before the race start time. I wasn't thinking clearly, and when I didn't see her in the crowds near what I thought was the baggage check area, I convinced myself that it wasn't the baggage check area (despite the sign, despite all logic), and then walked all the way back toward the start, past the porta-potties and almost to the finish area, when I finally frantically asked a volunteer. I did find her, back at baggage, where she had been all along, but I was jumpy and crazy upset (sweating, near tears, could not catch breath) by that time. This all unfolded over a time-span of about ten minutes, but it felt like an eternity! You know how time gets wonky when you're nervous or anticipating something? Sigh. Anyway, we made it to the start, jumped in with the people with our bib color, and the race began.

Just typing all that and remembering how I felt before yesterday's race is making my heart race. Anxiety is a bitch.

This race was three laps of the 6-mile road loop inside Central Park. Here's a map:

During the first loop, I calmed down. It was warm and humid, but, thankfully, not raining (although after dealing with all that humidity for a while, some rain would have been a relief). We walked up the nastiest hills and through most of the water stations, and I stuck with my plan to consistently hydrate and to eat Gu every 5 miles.

The second loop wasn't good. It all started hurting a lot earlier than expected, but I was able to maintain a (relatively) consistent pace, and when we rounded the top of the park for the third loop, I knew I could finish it. The best part? We ran the final mile in an amazing 10:13! Guess Tracy and I really wanted to get that race over with.

When I first started running, my goal for my first-ever 4-mile race was to finish in under 48 minutes. I did it, but it was challenging. Also, there was a time, just a little over two years ago, when I wrote I was proud of myself for building up to 10 whole miles a week. Now I can run 10 miles in one workout, any old time I want (except the day after a long run, I have rules). I consistently run 25-30 miles a week. My fastest documented average pace for a race (it was a 10K) is 10:10. I have made a lot of progress on this little running project of mine, and I am proud. I'm thinking that instead of panicking before long runs, I need to work on reminding myself of all of this positive accomplishment when I start to get anxious about a new distance or course. I can do this.

Wilco! @ Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, 9.22.2011...And Furry Friday.

2011-09-23T09:12:00.001-04:00

So, Wilco is one of my favorite bands. Ever. Maybe I have extra love for Wilco because Jeff Tweedy grew up in southern Illinois (like me!) - he's from Belleville, IL, outside St. Louis, MO - but the why or the how doesn't matter. I own every album and try to go to a live show every time they tour. I saw the band in 2007 when they were touring Sky Blue Sky, and again in 2009 after Wilco (The Album) came out for an epic Coney Island show, which I think may be the very best concert I have ever seen in my entire life. Apparently it was so good that I forgot to blog about it, because I looked back and must not have written anything! (It was this show, the link is to the write-up over at Brooklyn Vegan.) Oh, well. I was there. It was amazing.

Last night's concert at Central Park's Rumsey Playfield did not disappoint. It was a great mix of older songs and tunes from the new album, The Whole Love, which is coming out next week. I love Wilco's live performances so much that I'm considering acquiring a last-minute ticket and going again tonight, by myself, in the rain. What if they play "Passenger Side" or my favorite favorite "California Stars" (Woodie Guthrie cover) and I miss it? Ooo, or "Dreamer in my Dreams?" "The Late Greats?" "Kamera?" There are so many good songs that I know they can't play them all every time.

Here's a setlist, if you're interested in that sort of thing, but also so that I remember:

Art of Almost
I Might
Ashes of American Flags
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
One Wing
Bull Black Nova
At Least That's What You Said
One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)
Shouldn't be Ashamed
Born Alone
She's a Jar
Handshake Drugs
Standing O
Rising Red Lung
Impossible Germany
Dawned on Me
A Shot in the Arm
Hummingbird
---
Via Chicago
Whole Love
War on War
Jesus, Etc.
I'm the Man Who Loves You (during this one, Tweedy's little kids came out on the stage and were dancing around)
Monday
Outtasite (Outta Mind)

The opener, Nick Lowe, also sounded great.

By the way, of course I bought the show poster above, despite the fact that we have absolutely not one bit of wall space left in our entire apartment. I'm considering a re-curation of all of my wall art - maybe all (all meaning two - the other one is a rad Decemberists print) of my concert posters can go in the bathroom? Is that weird?

Anyway. A subject for another day.

John didn't go with me to the show, so I went with some friends. This is probably what was going on at home in my absence:

Furry Friday: Mabel goes for par

2011-09-16T10:54:00.000-04:00

It has been a while since I did a Furry Friday, but I found a bunch of cat pictures in my archives that I cannot WAIT to unleash on the internets.

Since my husband retired from his baseball (not professional or anything, but that's not to say he wasn't VERY serious about it) career last year, he has redirected his competitive energies toward golf. This has been good for us, because it keeps him focused and he usually plays golf on evenings and weekend days that I have long runs scheduled anyway, what with the marathon training and all. It also means that this summer he has been spending a lot of time at the Randall's Island driving range and various city golf courses. That's valuable time that he has NOT been spending with his jealous kitty cat girlfriend, Mabel. (A bit of history on our love triangle is here.)

When John goes to the driving range, he usually packs a few clubs into a lightweight golf range bag, so that he can strap it to his back and ride there on his bike.

Doesn't she look like she is desperately clutching that range bag, as if to beg John not to go? Aw.

Charcutepalooza September Challenge: Packing, and a wonderful English Pork Pie

2011-09-15T07:00:00.002-04:00

This month's Charcutepalooza challenge was "packing," and the instructions were to make a packed meat sort of dish and then enclose it in pastry. (The link to Mrs. Wheelbarrow's challenge page is here. You should click through just to look at all of her beautiful pictures of patés.)

I'm sure that lots of the Charcutepalooza participants are meat-focused cooking kinds of people, and therefore might not be bakers. I wondered about that - whether this assignment would force some people out of their comfort zones because they would be afraid of making pastry. Some people, like me, are sort of both, but many cooks are NOT bakers, and many bakers are NOT cooks. I love meat and know how to make all sorts of savory foods, but I also know my way around a pie crust, so I wasn't all that intimidated by this challenge - the stuffing challenges were much harder for me. Although our write-ups for each challenge are due on the 15th of the month, I was really excited about this one and actually did it almost 3 weeks ago! (This is the reason this post might read a little thin...I should have made notes about highlights and flavors at the time, but didn't and now it has been so long all I have left is a vague, fond memory.)

The English Pork Pie recipe in Ruhlman's Charcuterie book calls for 1.5 pounds of boneless pork shoulder, and then 1 cup of diced smoked ham (optional), plus various seasonings. I didn't have quite 1.5 pounds of pork shoulder or any ham, but what I did have was a bunch of fresh bacon hiding in my freezer! Perfect. A star pork pie was born.

Mmmm. Bacon.

Blending the filling.

I thought this dough recipe was suspiciously sticky when I mixed it into a paste and chilled it, but with a lot of flour I was able to roll it out without too much sticking to the rolling pin. It was difficult to work with, but not the worst I've seen.

Rolling out the dough.

Just out of the oven - English Pork Pie!

Now, the book says that this pie may be served warm, and in that case, the aspic portion of the recipe is left out, so that's what I did. I wasn't sure my eating crowd would care for a cool pork pie, so I served it just out of the oven (no aspic, which I find weird anyway).

We could not get enough of this - my husband and I put the whole thing away in a few days.

I served it with mustard, alongside some leftover franks & beans (another Charcutepalooza project), and some green beans.

My sister-in-law thought the texture of the meat filling was like meatloaf or SPAM, but I strongly disagree, mostly because the texture of this was really good. Not slimy or overly uniform, and the spices are great. I thought it was wonderful and interesting - this dish is savory pie at its best. I like the free-form crust, but think I might try to put it in a regular pie pan or even a springform next time, just for kicks. I'll definitely be making this again.

Restaurant Ravings (and a trip to Bermuda!) - August 2011

2011-09-07T13:56:00.000-04:00

Here it is already a week into September, and September has its own adventures to document! I had better wrap this up. Anyway, in case you're new here, I like to remember [almost] all of the dining (and sometime travel) experiences I have by month, so I usually post a quick summary of the dishes I liked at places I enjoyed.

Dos Toros, New York, NY (3 August 2011). For a little history on the Dos Toros v. Chipotle burrito conversation, you might find it helpful to read this article, which I endorse wholeheartedly. I'll be the first to admit that I love Chipotle, but the Dos Toros burrito wrapper is so much lighter, thinner, better. The Dos Toros guacamole is also far superior, and their salsas are very tasty. I think the proteins are less salty (at least, my fingers don't swell up as much after I eat them!) than Chipotle's. The only downside to Dos Toros, for me, is that it is a little bit farther to walk there from my office. Worth it on a nice day, though.

Waterlot Inn, Southampton, Bermuda (11 August 2011). I posted a little bit about our recent trip to Bermuda here, but we also enjoyed a lot of good food there. Bermuda is in no way a dining destination, but it does have some decent restaurants and I love the island so much that I'll forgive the fact that the food, in general, is solid but not overly innovative. This goes for the Waterlot Inn, where we dined our first night there.

View from the ferry ride from Hamilton over to the Waterlot Inn.

With our friends at dinner.

John enjoying the sticky toffee pudding dessert, one of his very favorite things to eat, ever.

The Waterlot Inn is a steakhouse, and the food there is pricey, even by Bermuda's standard (which is high -- as high or higher than dining in New York). Almost everything must be imported. I had a Caesar salad to start, which was fine, and the very good "Blue Cheese Fillet" entree. The steak was nice and perfectly cooked, in a red wine jus with a little blue cheese (yum!) on top. Our party also shared the truffle mac and cheese, creamed spinach, and potato gratin side dishes. Everything was delicious - the potatoes were my favorite side. For dessert, John ordered the sticky toffee pudding and I had a really great little bite. We had a good time, but the service was a little bizarre. They screwed up our bill somehow and we ended up waiting FOREVER to leave, and then I think we got out of there without having been charged for everything. Oh, well. I don't think I'll go back, but it is a good fine-dining stop if you're on the island and want a dressy steakhouse experience.

Swizzle Inn, South Shore, Bermuda (12 August 2011). Oooo, I LOVE the Swizzle. People will say that it is touristy, but go anyway. One day we rented scooters -- the thing to do in Bermuda -- and scooted all around the island checking out beaches and looking around. We popped in here for lunch, and I would have eaten lunch there every day had it been convenient.

The beginning of our scooter trip.

John on the way down to one of the public beaches we visited.

The Swizzle Inn is the home of the awesome "Rum Swizzle" drink, which you can enjoy frozen, and they make a really good frozen Dark 'n Stormy (my favorite Bermuda cocktail).

Rum swizzle time.

Also very very good are their BBQ chicken nachos. For lunch this day I had a "Bailey's Bay Fish Sandwich," which is a huge fried fillet served with cheese and tartar sauce. Tasty! Really tasty.

The Pickled Onion, Hamilton, Bermuda (12 August 2011). We wandered in to this place kind of late after a fun happy hour at our hotel. We had a great table on the balcony overlooking Front Street, and enjoyed some good wine and food. It wasn't terribly memorable, but I did enjoy my ribs.

64 Degrees, at the Port Royal Golf Club, Bermuda (13 August 2011). A. and I met John and J. for dinner here after the boys finished a round of golf, and I really loved it. The staff was friendly, and the food was some of the best we had. The view from the restaurant is beautiful - we got to see a pretty sunset. I can't find a menu, but I had a salad and some sort of fish dish from the chef's specials menu - both really nice.

They both played well, so they were happy.

We had the best table in the house - overlooking the course and ocean.

Sunset.

Coconuts, The Reefs, Southampton, Bermuda (14 August 2011). I LOVE The Reefs. It is where John and I got married, and we wanted to go back to dinner there to celebrate our anniversary. We had dinner on the beach, which was as nice as it sounds. I had a fish chowder, veal tortellini, and rock fish - my first two courses were just OK, but the rock fish was spot-on.

Sigh. Bermuda, I love you. Thanks for a great trip.

WD-50, New York, NY (18 August 2011). Amazing, amazing fourth wedding anniversary dining experience. Click over here to read about that.

Neely's Barbecue Parlor, New York, NY (20 August 2011). This place has received so much hate on Yelp that I was worried about trying it, but my husband and I love barbecue dearly and so decided that we must form our own opinion. I agree, mostly, with this review, although he didn't mention the fried pickles. I have tried pretty much every fried pickle in this fair city, and these were not very good. The breading was mushy, which is a travesty. The pulled pork hush puppies were quite tasty, though, as were my ribs and John's brisket. I do have a quibble with Sietsema's decision on the collards - mine were flavorful and savory, the perfect texture, and not bitter at all. He just got a bad batch, I'm sure of it! I loved those collards. I recommend that you go and check it out for yourself - the restaurant is beautiful, the service is fine (not excellent, by any stretch, but fine) and the food is good.

MXCO, New York, NY (24 August 2011). I have been to this place a handful of times, and it isn't terrific. But, I had a great time this last visit catching up with my dear friend who moved to L.A. last year, and the nachos and steak fajitas were pretty good. An easy neighborhood spot on the Upper East Side.

The Barking Dog, New York, NY (27 August 2011). I have been having a love affair with the Barking Dog's grilled vegetable sandwich on focaccia since 2001. That's ten years of devotion, dating all the way back to when I moved here and was working at Sotheby's on York Avenue at 72nd Street. We met some friends here for brunch the day Hurricane Irene was headed our way (more on that here), and I, as usual, ordered the grilled vegetable sandwich on focaccia. It is amazing. If disaster had struck and I had been forced to eat canned food for days on end, this sandwich was a good way to go out.

August 2011 was a fun month for food and travel - so far, September is looking good, too, considering we just returned from the scenic Kiawah Island, SC, and stopped over in Charleston, one of my favorite cities, on the way down. More on that to come!

Here's what I did before, during, and after Hurricane Irene...

2011-08-31T22:41:00.000-04:00

This is my hurricane hairdo, don't judge. Like you shower and get dressed and put on makeup when you are expecting a natural disaster.

Yeah, I spent most of Saturday and Sunday curled up on the couch snuggling kitty cats. Or, correction, one kitty cat - Mack - because Mabel is less cuddly (with me) and prefers to prance around the apartment teasing me and rubbing her head up against John's hand asking him to pet her. She bolts away from me at every opportunity, but she loves John. And, if John pays attention to me, she immediately gets jealous and springs between us, demanding that he pet her instead of me. We're working it out, this love triangle.

Anyway, Thursday night John and I went for a little four-mile run and then stocked up on water and food for the weekend, mostly because I knew that people would get crazy on Friday and Saturday and I wanted to be prepared in case we lost power and all of the food places were closed over the weekend. Following up, even though the storm didn't turn out to be as disastrous as it could have, people DID get crazy - John witnessed two women fighting over the last box of Nutrigrain bars in a local drugstore - and food places WERE (mostly) closed, so I'm glad we were ready.

Friday I spent the business day dividing my time among: (1) trying not to be distracted by the ominous weather news; (2) building my Hurricane Irene playlist (post on that to come later); and (3) doing real work. Thankfully, our managers were just as antsy as we were and let people go early, but considering I had nothing to do but for sit around being nervous, I went shoe shopping. I could have gone running, but I worked out Sunday-Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday last week, and my legs needed a break!

I won't lie, on Saturday morning I readied our "go bag," put valuable breakables in the closet, and removed framed items from the walls. In hindsight, it seems nuts, but I was afraid that if the winds were as high as predicted, debris might be flying around, or that the pressure would pop our 21st-floor windows right out! I didn't want my much-loved prints and framed photographs to fly off the walls or get ruined, so I stashed them. I also cooked most of the raw meat in our refrigerator (sausages, ground chorizo), figuring that if we lost power, it would keep longer if it was already cooked! I'm laughing at myself now, but whatever. Better safe than sorry, as they say.

My most important pre-hurricane preparation was making "crispy-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies" (link to Smitten Kitchen's fantastic recipe).

Disaster provisions.

When John and I met some friends for brunch at the Barking Dog (their grilled vegetable sandwich on focaccia is bomb) later on Saturday, they laughed at all of my precautions, but I stand by my decision to be prepared.

Mabel was not too worried about the hurricane.

Neither was Mack.

Saturday night was spent drinking beers, watching Love and Other Drugs (our review: cute dialog, the brother was hilarious, unrealistic resolution, lots of naked Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal), and waiting for the wind to pick up. We finally went to bed around midnight, but didn't sleep well. I thought the worst of the storm was early Sunday morning, but was able to doze through most of it. The wind and rain eventually died down, and we went out to Carl Shurz Park to survey the East River and see what we could see. There were a few downed limbs and the water was very high, but there were lots of people out and about. The craziest thing was that there is one low-lying area of the park that was flooded, and some kids were swimming in it like it was a pool! Gross!

Surveying the aftermath in Carl Shurz Park.

There were some downed trees, but nothing major.

Except this CRAZY new pool - you can see park benches around the edge of this - I bet it was 4-5 feet deep.

Afterward our walk, the wind actually got more intense as the day went on, which was weird. I had some serious cabin fever, and John had boring work stuff to deal with on the phone all day, so I went out for a tiny little 2-mile run over to the Upper West Side to meet my friends in a bar. That's right, I jogged to drink beers. That's how I roll. I cut through Central Park on the way over, and although there were more tree limbs down, I didn't see any horrific damage, and there were lots of other runners and walkers about.

In the end, Hurricane Irene wasn't too hard on New York, and I'm thankful. Seeing the flooding and devastation in other areas tells me that it could have been a lot worse here. I'm not one of the people who think that the hurricane was "over hyped" or that the city's advance actions were ridiculous. I think the city's serious, thorough approach to preparing was admirable. What was ridiculous was the alarmist media coverage, particularly on The Weather Channel. Other outlets, particularly our local news channel, NY1, and CNBC had reasonable, informative coverage about what was happening, but The Weather Channel insisted on trying to scare everyone. "Don't panic, but this is going to be the 'storm of a lifetime!!' Apocalypse is coming! Your apartment building is going to blow down! The storm's coming to get YOU! Stay tuned!"

In hindsight, it seems to me as though The Weather Channel was intentionally trying to drum up fear from its viewers, so that they would continue to watch (and therefore increase advertising exposure). I might be singing a different tune if New York had been flattened by this storm, but as it stands the biggest lesson I learned was to avoid The Weather Channel.

Books I've Read: Sarah's Key

2011-08-31T11:48:00.000-04:00

by Tatiana De Rosnay

The subject matter of this novel is compelling and sad - a little Jewish girl, Sarah, locks her 4-year-old brother in a secret cupboard when the Paris police come to round up her and her parents to force them to go first to the Velodrome d'Hiver, and then to concentration camps. Half of the story is set then, in wartime France during the summer of 1942, and the other half takes place mostly during 2002, from the perspective of Julia, an American journalist living in Paris.

I won't spoil too much of the plot, because I think this is a worthwhile read, particularly for those interested in the Holocaust. I read a bunch of reviews of it, and I disagree with those who thought the author's method of jumping between time periods from chapter to chapter (for about the first half of the novel) was a failure -- I thought it was very effective in conveying the urgency of Sarah's determination to return to the Paris apartment to free her brother. I do think that Sarah's story is more interesting than Julia's (Julia's story is OK, but her character is weak), but the drama of this novel turns on these characters' coincidental connection.

The one thing that I will give away only because it was so irritating and obvious - the author's decision to call Sarah "the girl" throughout the first part of the book, and then reveal her name like it was going to be a big surprise that "the girl" carrying this key around was Sarah? I mean, the title is "Sarah's Key," duh. Also, the use of the name Sarah later in the modern plot is hokey and predictably cliche.

This novel is about a fascinating subject and has a great start, so despite the disappointing second half I recommend it.

Books I've Read: Gods of Newport

2011-08-25T15:40:00.000-04:00

by John Jakes

The cover of The Gods of Newport makes it look more trashy and ridiculous than it really is.

When John and I visited Newport earlier this summer, I fell in love with it. After we got home, I looked around for some books about Newport during the Gilded Age and came across this novel. The descriptions of Newport society during the late nineteenth century, when the super rich were building "cottages" along Bellevue Avenue (multi-million dollar mansions that were only used for a 6-8 week summer season each year) and throwing extravagant theme parties, were satisfying. It was fun to read about the antics of the supporting "characters;" many were true historical figures, such as Mamie Fish and Alva Vanderbilt. The outlandish excess of Newport society during the Gilded Age was real, and Jakes combines this with the story of a fictional family trying to fit in. That - the fictional characters - is where this novel is weak.

The true history of Newport and its colorful people during this time period is fascinating; it doesn't even seem as though such overindulgence could be real. It needs no embellishment. Compared to that, the fictional people, mainly Sam and Jenny Driver, and Prince Molloy, seem pale. They aren't extremely likable, interesting or believable, the love story between Jenny and Prince seems forced, and other plot lines are contrived.

In the end, I loved reading about Newport, but don't think the novel as a whole hangs together all that well.

You know what's surreal?

2011-08-24T10:42:00.001-04:00

Feeling an earthquake in New York, that's what. And then, after evacuating an office building, bumping into Jeffrey Tambor (or George Bluth in Arrested Development) on the sidewalk.

"No touching!"

Sadly, he didn't say any good Bluthisms while everyone was wandering around freaking out about the earth quaking, but I hear there is an Arrested Development movie being made, so that will be fun!

I'll admit that I was pretty much freaked out during the earthquake. We New Yorkers are skittish about things rocking the ground here in our fair city, and they are very uncommon in this area. I remember doing drills in school growing up, but all of that disaster preparedness knowledge left me in the heat of the moment, and instead of getting under the desk or taking cover near a stable inner wall, I was compelled to get OUT of the building. I'm just glad I was in my office building, which is only 4 stories high, and not at home on the 21st floor of my apartment building. We evacuated briefly, but then had to go back to work after a little while.

The experience made for a weird day, so I was thankful for an easy little 5-mile run with Tracy after work. I met her for the latter part of her long run, and we ran up the Hudson River Park path, which was really nice. I love that run because it is flat and scenic. But, there are certainly downsides - the crappy ugly section through midtown is one, and all of the ferocious inconsiderate bikers is another. One crotchety mean old woman was obnoxiously dinging her bell behind us as we were running past a group of walkers in Riverside Park, and even though she had PLENTY of room - like, 15 feet, and no one approaching - to pass us on our left, she still felt the need to screech "MOVE TO THE RIGHT WHEN YOU HEAR THE BELL!!!!" at us as she passed. Nice. The epic battle between reckless rude bikers and runners goes on.

So, earthquake yesterday, possible hurricane this weekend? I'm signed up to run in the Bronx Half-Marathon, and the weather is looking dire. As in, Hurricane Irene might make landfall that day, which will make for some very rainy and windy weather during the run. Hmm. End of the world? Let's hope not.

(I think the Band of Horses cover of this song, "The End's Not Near" by The New Year, is way better than the original, despite the fact that it was featured on The O.C.)

[Not a Race] Report: NYRR's ING New York City Marathon Long Training Run #2

2011-08-23T09:01:00.001-04:00

Of the three main training programs I've been following for the marathon, for last weekend's long run, one prescribed a mere 10 miles (the "Break-5:00" Training Peaks plan), and another an impossibly far 16 miles (a "First-Timer's Marathon Training Plan" I tore out from Runners' World, which is hanging on my cubicle wall). The third, which I got from the New York Running Company's marathon training group, has mile ranges, with the idea that beginners will trend toward the lower mileage and experienced marathoners will run more. That one had a range of 9-16 miles for 8.21.2011.

I have been aiming for somewhere in the middle of all of this, adding mileage every weekend for three weeks and then cutting back a bit on the fourth weekend, and keeping in mind a few benchmarks I have in mind (like being able to run 18 miles by NYRR's ING New York City Marathon Tune-Up run on 9.25.2011). I like the Training Peaks plan, but so far its low mileage has made me a little nervous. The logic doesn't seem to add up for me - if I only run 10 miles on 8.21.2011, how will I be ready to run 8 MORE miles in only one month? Anyway, in a few weeks, all of the programs more or less converge for "Monster Month," so that's less confusing.

This weekend I thought I would try to do 13-14 miles, which didn't really work out for the route of NYRR's ING New York City Marathon Long Training Run #2. If I only did the first loop, that's only 6 miles. If I only did the first two loops, that's only 11 miles. If I did three loops? Yikes, that's 16 miles! (Here's the map.)

Because of a late departure from home and a much-needed iced coffee stop on the way to the park, I didn't make it to the start line at 102nd Street until a few minutes after 7. I knew from last time that this wouldn't be a problem, because my running pals and I were with the 11-minute milers way at the back and the start was in waves. Jenny, Tracy and I started jogging along, but after one loop Tracy wasn't feeling it and peeled off to head home. Almost immediately after that, my hip started nagging at me again, but Jenny and I took it slowly around the second loop, stopping to stretch twice and walking for a few seconds every mile. We made it back to the transverse at mile 11 and decided that we could do the smaller loop (the fourth loop on the map linked above), for a total of 15 miles. If I had only done 13 I would have ended up on the southwest side of the park 2 miles from home, anyway, so we just ran/walked the rest of it back around and up to the start.

15 miles in total, my longest run ever in life. Before this, the furthest I had ever run was about half-marathon distance!

To be honest, we walked quite a bit, but we definitely ran more than we walked and our overall average pace for the run was less than 13 minutes per mile. Respectable! (Considering all the walking and that I sometimes forget to stop my watch when I stop to get water or stretch.) It was hot and quite humid, and the park is stupid hilly. I pretended like each and every hill was a bridge, because I know the bridges give some people trouble during the New York City marathon. If I keep training in Central Park, I will be ready for those hill bridges.

WD-50, be still my heart

2011-08-19T13:18:00.000-04:00

I usually don't get around to writing about restaurants until the end of the month, when I gather and write about all of my favorite meals eaten out over that time. (See July, June, May...it goes on.) However, the dinner my husband and I had at Wylie Dufresne's WD-50 last night was worth its own post.

We ordered the 9-course tasting menu, which we also had the last time we ate there (last year sometime). Last time, I remember liking it, but this time our experience was wonderful. We did not do the wine pairing, seeing as I'm training for a marathon and gross amounts of wine consumption on a weeknight are discouraged.

I know this image is faint and, well, terrible, but I had to fax it to myself and that did not turn out so well. Oh, well. I recommend that you peruse the restaurant's website, but this is a copy of menu they gave us last night (18 August 2011).

Any fans of the television show Top Chef (we are!) will recognize Wylie Dufresne as a frequent guest judge, and know that his ilk of food, known as "molecular gastronomy" is modern and experimental, is a sort of marriage of science, food, and art. The dishes are often deconstructed in some way, where textures and flavors are presented differently than one might expect. The experience of eating this way is whimsical and exciting - John and I laughed at the fun of it all more than once last night. We had a fantastic time.

A perfect example of this type of food is WD-50's "Everything bagel, smoked salmon threads, crispy cream cheese," which is ice cream in a small bagel shape, served with a little pile of dried smoky salmon threads and a slice of sort of dried cream cheese. You take a bite, and the flavors are familiar, but the presentation, textures, and temperatures are all foreign. Fantastic.

We enjoyed every dish, but some favorites were the "Foie-lafel" (and I don't even like organs and foie all that much), the poached egg, the tai snapper, and the lamb loin. All of the desserts were amazing - all with lovely interesting flavor and texture combinations, and all very different from one another.

Last time we went to WD-50, I took a wrong turn wandering around in the dark basement trying to find the bathroom, and Wylie Dufresne himself happened to be down there! He kindly directed me to toilets, and I was star-struck and a little embarrassed. (To be fair, the restroom situation there is quite confusing! And dark!) Then, later, when our excellent waitress asked if we would like to take a peek in the kitchen and meet the chef, I was too shy to accept and politely declined...but not before asking her if she wouldn't mind getting the chef's autograph for me. She did, and now I have it framed on our wall, but I instantly regretting not taking the chance to tour a molecular gastronomic artist's kitchen. That was stupid. I regretted it for over a year.

This time, we were again asked if we would like to come back to the kitchen, and this time I practically shouted, "YES! YES! WE WOULD LOVE TO!" I don't know if they randomly chose us because we look like nice people and were obviously having an awesome time and loving the food, or if John secretly requested this (he won't tell), but omigosh, so exciting.

The maitre d' took us back and pointed out the different areas of the kitchen, including the wall of fun scientific ingredients special to this type of food. So cool! Chef Dufresne then came over, and we told him that we had a great time. I couldn't help myself, so I mentioned about the last time we ate there, I bumped into him in the basement and he had to direct me to the restrooms, and he laughed and laughed. He said I definitely wasn't the first lost patron needing a rescue down there - refreshing!

In the end, we had an amazing night out in celebration of our fourth wedding anniversary. And there were flowers waiting for me when we got home. Happy.

9 miles in Bermuda

2011-08-18T06:28:00.001-04:00

Thankfully, my long run last weekend over our Bermuda vacation was scheduled to be a 9-mile "cut-back" run, a good thing because I was still concerned about some discomfort in my IT band and hip. Turns out that my hip was absolutely fine, but this run was still totally boring and brutal. "How!?" you ask, dismayed. How could a run in beautiful Bermuda be anything but awesome? Well. WELL. Let me tell you.

First, to be fair, Bermuda mostly looks like this:

It is a wonderful place, so beautiful that it is where my husband and I chose to get married, in this exact pink sandy spot (which we visited on this trip, to see if it was the same - it is!), four years ago today (Happy Anniversary to us!):

So, yeah, Bermuda is AWESOME. This run wasn't exactly that.

I did an out-and-back from the Fairmont Hamilton Princess up and out on the Railway Trail (that link has lots of interesting information about the history of the trail, including some pictures). For some reason, my Garmin report of this run turned out wonky (it tracked the mileage and time, but the map is weird), so here it is from MapMyRun:

<p>&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/46506152"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;A run mapped on 08/17/2011&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/?location=Pembroke, Bermuda"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Runs in Pembroke, Bermuda&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>
Maybe my Garmin was affected by the mysterious forces of the Bermuda Triangle? I know my iPhone sure was. It inexplicably ceased working about a day after we arrived in Bermuda, and refused to take any charge or turn on at all. I was convinced it was dead and that I was going to have to schedule a Genius Bar adventure after we returned to New York, but, lo! As soon as we got home and I plugged it in, it powered right up.

Bermuda is a volcanic island, which to me means that it is covered in sneaky hills. It is also rather lacking in sidewalks. When I asked one hotel concierge about where I should go for a run, she directed me to follow a city sidewalk along Front Street in Hamilton, and said that to the first roundabout was about a mile and a quarter. Um, thanks, but I needed to run about 8x that distance, and she seemed baffled by that information. I asked another person later, and the guy told me about the Railway Trail.

I really wish he had sent me in the opposite direction (north and east along the North Shore Road), because when we went by there later it looked very scenic and lovely. They way he suggested was right through the middle of the island, and it was in a claustrophobic old railroad valley almost the entire time. The walls on this thing were at least 15 feet high in some places, and dripping in tree vines. There was no view, other than the seemingly endless track, bordered on both sides by creeping leaves and giant walls (there are some pictures here). The trail did pop out of the walled path in a few spots and I could see some homes and vistas, but those were few and far between. Also, the trail is dirt and grass, and gravelly in places, which made footing a little tricky. It was better than dodging cars and motor-scooters on the sidewalk-less, twisty, Bermudian roads, but not what I am used to.

I did get started around 6:30AM to avoid the heat, so the temperature was really pleasant. However, there were no water fountains or places to stop, and I only carried about 16 ounces, which isn't enough for me over such a long run. I also didn't have any coffee before starting out, which, as I have learned the hard way, only makes the long runs more difficult.

Because of the above-mentioned iPhone hibernation, I didn't have music or my audiobook to entertain me, and I didn't have any company. There were some (not many, and not nearly enough to provide good people-watching) other runners and walkers about, but no one running my pace and looking friendly enough to approach.

Oh! This is the best part. Because I didn't have on my headphones, I had to listen to the sound of Bermuda's very special whistling tree frogs for the entire hour and nearly 45 minutes. That's right. Whistling tree frogs. (Here's a link to a YouTube video that gives you a listen.)

From Bermuda-Online.org:

[The whistling tree frogs] are one of the most characteristic night sounds of Bermuda between April and November....They can be heard island-wide when the weather is warm enough....Many visitors are not used to the whistling song, a loud bell-like chorus, of these tiny and harmless creatures. Some visitors say it disturbs their sleep but others love it because it adds a unique sound to the atmosphere.

Put me in the camp that finds this sound disturbing! That said, I'm sure a person would get accustomed to it, and it didn't bother my sleep at night. It did bother me on this run, though. Like, big time. I thought I would jump out of my own skin. That sound could drive a woman to drink.

Luckily, in addition to whistling tree frogs, Bermuda also has this to offer, the Rum Swizzle:

And this, the Dark & Stormy:

And white wine, consumed alongside John and our good friends J and A:

So, despite the tough run, obviously I forgive Bermuda. Next time I'll run on the more scenic route and figure out a way to drown out those tree frogs.

Books I've Read: Unbroken

2011-08-17T10:45:00.000-04:00

by Laura Hillenbrand

I am usually not into war movies or books, possibly for the same reasons that I hate television shows featuring those horrible "real housewives:" to watch humans being awful to one another is not entertaining for me. But, this is a great, inspiring story of survival. The suffering Louie Zamperini endured while lost at sea and then as a POW in Japan is nothing short of amazing, and his story is one that I'm so glad was told.

From Juliet Disparte's Amazon.com review:

Unbroken [is] the inspiring true story of a man who lived through a series of catastrophes almost too incredible to be believed. In evocative, immediate descriptions, Hillenbrand unfurls the story of Louie Zamperini--a juvenile delinquent-turned-Olympic runner-turned-Army hero. During a routine search mission over the Pacific, Louie’s plane crashed into the ocean, and what happened to him over the next three years of his life is a story that will keep you glued to the pages, eagerly awaiting the next turn in the story and fearing it at the same time. You’ll cheer for the man who somehow maintained his selfhood and humanity despite the monumental degradations he suffered, and you’ll want to share this book with everyone you know.

I can't describe this story any better, but I want to add that I DO want to share it with everyone I know, so that includes all of you people. My dad read it and admired it, and my husband is going to read it once he is finished with the book he is reading now.

I worried over, cried with, and cheered for Louie, and I literally could not put this book down. I won't forget it.

Charcutepalooza August Challenge: Binding, and a Seafood Mousseline

2011-08-15T19:08:00.001-04:00

This was fun! (The link to Mrs. Wheelbarrow's challenge is here.) I had some major problems in my presentation for this dish; although it tastes delicious and I love the idea, the way I chose to serve it decidedly did NOT work out. Ooops! That's OK, though, I have a lot of mousseline left and plan to try again this week.

After the meat spackle grossness of last month's hot dog challenge (which did, admittedly, grow on me, but my husband is still totally freaked out about the meat goo and is having a hard time eating these unless they are hidden in franks & beans), I was a little worried about how I would react to a sort of liquefied scallop and egg white mixture, which is the base of the mousseline recipe in the Ruhlman book. Once I got started, though, I realized that my worries were unnecessary. This dish came together surprisingly easily.

See the yellow mixture in the food processor above? That's the liquefied scallop situation. It is yellow because of the saffron, and was surprisingly un-gross.

After mixing together the seafood, I wrapped it in softened leek strips Ito the left above) and gently baked it in a water bath in the oven. Then, I had to weigh it down and refrigerate, but I didn't really know how to to do this considering the container I was using (my small Le Creuset casserole dish)...so I improvised:

A huge part of this challenge was to make the mousseline attractive, but I don't think I exactly succeeded with that. When I turned the dish out and unwrapped it, it looked like a leek-wrapped oval, nothing special. I wish I had striped the leeks like Mrs. Wheelbarrow did, but the instructions in the recipe said only to "wrap" and I didn't know what I was doing.

Upon cutting into it, I knew it was a winner, though. It looked and smelled great:

The major problem with my mousseline arose because I decided it would probably be really great served along with this green gazpacho, made with cucumbers, dill, green grapes, a hot pepper, and lots of other delicious fresh herbs, that I had been meaning to try. The original recipe from Food & Wine had a sort of crab salad thing on top, so I suspected that the flavor profile of that would be similar to this. I'm sure it was, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that the green gazpacho was terrible. It wasn't really my fault, I think it is just a bad recipe. Lucky for you, I couldn't even find it online, so I can't even subject you all to the link and the faint hope that maybe you could fix up the recipe idea and improve this somehow.

It looks like soupy guacamole in the pictures, but trust this, it was not as tasty as that would be.

Here's the final product, which is admittedly not very attractive:

So, although this one didn't exactly come together as I planned, she seafood mousseline (with scallops, crab, and saffron) was delicious. I can't wait to try it with some better accompaniments!

Books I've Read: The Corrections

2011-08-11T07:00:00.000-04:00

by Jonathan Franzen

I read this book years ago, when it was first published. I own it in hard back, I think a long-ago Easter gift from my mom.

After I recently read Jonathan Franzen's newest novel, Freedom, I started thinking about how I didn't remember The Corrections at all. I remembered liking it, or at least respecting it, and that it was set around a Midwestern family. Even re-reading the dust jacket jogged no memories, so I re-read it. As I read, certain scenes were familiar, but overall it was like reading it for the first time. Memory is strange.

I liked this one so much more than The Corrections. You can go over to Amazon and take a look at the summary, so I won't get into too much of that here, but this one is more entertaining, and less preachy. There are excerpts that are breath-takingly wonderful - one example is a scene early in the book where his father, Alfred, tells Chip that he must sit at the dinner table until he eats some of the liver and rutabaga that his mother, Enid, prepared for dinner. The description of the passage of time as Chip, a 7-year-old, sits there late into the night as his family is doing other things around the house is beautiful.

The characters are worth investing in, however irritating and flawed they may be, and they will remind you of your own family. I loved this one. It was worth remembering.

Hip pain hip pain ow ow ow

2011-08-08T09:58:00.001-04:00

That was what was going through my mind as I tried to finish up my long run on Sunday. Hip pain hip pain ow ow ow. Hip pain hip pain ow ow ow. Repeat. After about 10.5 miles (I think, my Garmin battery died), I had to limp/walk it in to finish my planned 12 miles. Not good.

I am nearly certain that it is my IT band, where it connects to my hip. I have been a lot better during this training cycle about stretching and cross-training, but I know my hips and hamstrings are tight. The weird thing is that I have been feeling great. I didn't run an unusually high number of miles last week (22 or so, which is normal for me). The only thing I did differently this week was to add an easy run on Saturday before my scheduled long run, which my plan calls for. The difference is that I had been doing these on Friday nights and taking Saturdays off, a schedule that I definitely liked better and to which I plan to return as soon as I'm feeling better. No more running the day before a long slow distance run. Lesson learned!

Anyway, I'm worried (VERY WORRIED) about how this might affect the rest of my marathon training, but I'm trying not to be overly dramatic. I still have 90 days to go. That's a long time. I can ice and rest and stretch and buy a foam roller on my way home tonight. My current plan is to try not to freak out, remain calm, replace my worn-out shoes (which I was going to do anyway now that it is August), and commit to the stretching. I found this article really helpful, but there is a lot of information about this online.

Next weekend has a step-back run in my training schedule, anyway, so I'm going to take it easy this week and see how I feel. Plus, my husband and I are traveling to Bermuda with some friends, so given that environment I'm sure I will be able to make myself rest up!

Speed workout...in the rain...uphill both ways

2011-08-04T10:27:00.000-04:00

We all remember that I've never run a marathon before, right? Right. I have run a couple of half-marathons, though, and up to this point in the training program they are similar - long, slow run on the weekends, and three (or four) additional days of running, including hills/speedwork, a "tempo run," and another easy or "race pace" shorter run.

In theory, I know what hill and speed workouts are supposed to look like. I read the running magazines, blogs, and forum posts by other runners. But having a knowledgeable, experienced person tell me exactly what I need to be doing for these? Helpful!

Tracy encouraged me to try out the (free!) Foot Locker Run Club (here's the registration page, but it does not provide very much information), which she tried in the past and enjoyed. I have been twice to their Wednesday night running classes, and I am liking it so far. The workouts are interesting, and the coaches seem knowledgeable and supportive. A lot of the people in the group seem to be training for their first 10K, but the running workouts have been in the 3-3.5 mile range each Wednesday, so they fit in nicely for my training, too. Here's an example:

Reservoir pick-ups - Warm up to Reservoir entrance on W. 86th Street. Hop on Reservoir loop going counter clockwise. Run hard to E. 90th (about .6 miles). Recover to the North Pump House. Run hard back to North Pump House. Run hard back to W. 86th (about .5 miles). Recover to E. 90th. Run hard to W. 86th (1 mile). Recover back to Columbus Circle.

This is the kind of run I will rarely make myself do, so joining a group and having coaches instruct and cheer for me is ideal! If I didn't have something structured, I would just go out for a regular old run at my normal (slow) pace, and never try anything new.

Last night it was pouring rain when I left work at 6 to head up to the park to meet the group. POURING rain. I thought it might let up, but it got worse before it got better.

"Inside a broken clock
Splashing the wine with all the rain dogs
Taxi, we'd rather walk
Huddle a doorway with the rain dogs
For I am a rain dog, too.

Oh, how we danced and we swallowed the night
For it was all ripe for dreamin'
Oh, how we danced
Away all of the lights
We've always been out of our minds!"

(Tom Waits is awesome. He's been in my head this week because I just ordered this book and CAN'T WAIT for it to arrive.)

The Foot Locker Run Club group gathered under one of the small bridges on the southwest side of Central Park for the coach's introductory talk, which was about expected soreness/tightness vs. real injuries and how to tell the difference - I tuned out a little bit, but I am sure that kind of thing is helpful for new runners.

When that was over, we all jogged up to the 72nd Street transverse to run interval/hills. We ran hard from the west side of the transverse up to the bridge (between Bethesda fountain and the area where the disco roller skaters hang out on the weekends), at a suggested effort of 85%, recovered down the short hill to East Drive, then turned and ran hard up to the bridge again, then recovered down the hill to West Drive. Back and forth, for (I think) 5 laps, then a jog back to where we started for some squats, lunges, calf raises, and various stretches. My Garmin watch wasn't cooperating, but I took a look on Map My Run and I think the entire run, including the warm up/cool down, was around 3.25 miles.

It rained, then poured, the entire time! I would rather run in the rain than the crazy hot and humid weather we have had over the past few weeks, but a nice easy rain run is completely different than a speed workout. By the end, my shoes were all sloshy and heavy, and I really just wanted to go home.

However miserable, I'm really happy that I went to the class and feel good above completing this workout in the rainy weather - it might rain on marathon day, right?! Best to get out there and do what I have to do to prepare.

Restaurant Ravings, and a Midwestern visit - July 2011

2011-08-03T08:34:00.000-04:00

Yipes, I haven't posted in a week!

This July, John and I traveled out to the Midwest to hang around in St. Louis for a few days, visit my parents in Harrisburg, Illinois, and attend a family reunion at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. It was a relaxing trip, and a good way to celebrate the summer and ease in to the big scary marathon training season. We also ate tons of good food, both there and at home in New York. Here's the run-down:

Mike Shannon's Steak and Seafood, St. Louis, MO (9 July 2011). I grew up going to Cardinals games in St. Louis, but before this trip I had not had the chance to visit the new Busch Stadium, and John had never even spent time in St. Louis. So, during this vacation, we planned a little overnight stay (in the new Westin near the stadium, which I definitely recommend) in St. Louis before heading to my parents' house in southern Illinois, and we visited Mike Shannon's before the game. They serve a great steak for the pre-game crowd, and the baseball memorabilia all around the restaurant is very cool for the tourists (which we were), but what I remember most is the amazing creamed spinach.

John saying hi to Stan the Man outside Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

The Cardinals won that night, but Busch Stadium is HOT. I'm aware that it is summertime and all that, but this stadium has NO AIR. It is better than the old one, but we sweltered. Whew.

The next day we visited the iconic arch and did a Budweiser brewery tour - couldn't resist.

The St. Louis Gateway Arch.

View of St. Louis and the stadium from the top of the arch.

Inside the Clydesdales' stable at the Budweiser brewery. Horsies!

Steak 'n Shake, Belleville, IL (10 July 2011) and Wentzville, MO (17 July 2011). Dare I hope for truth in the rumor that my very favorite Midwestern burger chain is coming to New York? I do! I love Steak 'n Shake, which is a Midwestern burger chain that began in Normal, IL in the 1930's. We went twice while we were out there, and I swear by "The Original" steak burger (which is a double with cheese) and the vanilla shake. The burgers are thin and crispy, and the rolls are buttery and delicious. Mmm, mmm. When I was growing up, the closest Steak 'n Shake was the one in Belleville, so I remember it being a treat to stop there when my mom would drive there to go shopping, or when we were coming back from St. Louis. Eventually one opened in Marion, IL, which is closer, and I would go there a lot in high school. There are some excellent burgers in New York, but I will always hold this steak burger near and dear.

Mackie's Pizza, Marion, IL (10 July 2011). The tour of my childhood favorite foods continued when we stopped for Mackie's on the way to Harrisburg from St. Louis (mere hours after the brewery tour AND the first Steak 'n Shake stop - could this have been the perfect day?). I grew up eating Mackie's Pizza, which serves a thin-crust style pie. It might not taste the greatest to pizza snobs who aren't from southern Illinois, but it has such a sentimental connection for me that I always think it is the best. Pepperoni and mushroom is my favorite combination, always has been, always will be.

Bar-B-Q Barn, Harrisburg, IL (17 July 2011). I couldn't find a website for this place, but it is the BEST BARBECUE EVER. The pulled pork sandwich is the standard by which I measure all other pulled pork sandwiches. They also do an awesome roasted pork loin and have excellent pies and cream horns. If you don't know what a cream horn is, then that is very sad and I recommend that you go get yourself one as soon as you can.

Corner Bistro, New York, NY (21 July 2011). People who tell you that this is the best burger in New York are liars, but it is still a good burger, possibly best enjoyed with a dear co-worker late-night after a work happy hour that went long. I like the bistro burger, which comes with bacon and cheese, alongside a McSorley's Ale.

Flex Mussels, New York, NY (23 July 2011). I love Flex Mussels. Their "Bisque" mussels with lobster, brandy, tomatoes, garlic and cream (ask them to make it spicy!) are amazing, and I have always had good service and good wine there. Plus, the doughnut desserts blow my mind every time! But. BUT.

On this particular trip we were seated next to a couple and their single friend, together with the couple's two young children (they were maybe 4 and 7 years old?). If ever there was a situation in which a family with rascally youngsters should have been asked to leave a dining establishment, this was it. Those kids were terrors. They kept yelling and getting up from the table and RUNNING AS FAST AS THEY COULD to the front of the dining area, to go to the bathroom? For some reason? One bumped our table again and again. They were old enough to know better, and certainly old enough for their parents to make an attempt to wrangle them. When they knocked into a waiter and almost sent another party's dinner flying off of the tray, I thought surely the parents would, you know, parent them, and at least tell them to stop being so wild, but, no. They just sat there, drinking wine and ignoring their evil, loud, rude spawn, which made it more infuriating. An older gentleman seated nearby intervened and told the kids to sit down and cool it, but it didn't help. It was awful, and just went on, and on, and on.* Eventually they left, but John and I were at the end of our rope. So, we went to Pinkberry on the way home - despite having already enjoyed dessert - for some healing frozen yogurt.

Frying Pan, New York, NY (31 July 2011). After a successful long run with Tracy (Aside - she was much more enamored with this run that I was - my legs were like blocks at the end! It was hard, but in a good way.), I was ready to EAT something, anything. John and I met some friends at the Frying Pan, which is a great outdoor bar/restaurant on a boat tied up and floating on the Hudson River. I love their garlic Old Bay fries, but the steak platter, clams, and mussels were all also very tasty.

Patsy's, New York, NY (31 July 2011). Yes, even after eating a veritable feast at the Frying Pan on Sunday afternoon, we were still ready for dinner afterward! What? Don't judge. I had run 12 miles that day! We had a few drinks at the Maritime Hotel, then wandered over to the Patsy's in Chelsea. You can probably guess from the information above that we ordered a pepperoni and mushroom pie, and it was amazing, as Patsy's pizzas generally are. Also worth a mention is their very good fried calamari appetizer.

Writing these restaurant posts makes me realize that John and I eat a lot. This is why I run.

*Yes, I'm totally aware that I sound like one of those judgmental whining childless yuppies who are always complaining about babies in bars in Park Slope. I do not care. These children were monsters - SO misbehaved - and their idiot parents did not care, which made it worse. Grr.

Weight, weight!

2011-07-27T15:41:00.000-04:00

I was thinking this morning about how this blog has ebbed and flowed over the years, from when it started for no reason at all other than to keep in touch with far-away family and friends (I was a sillier, younger person back then, one who apparently used a Palm Pilot and watched America's Next Top Model? Bwah ha ha! Who WAS that girl?), to when I was in law school and going to see live music more than 5 times a month (who has the time to do this? Students who think they are busy but really are not, that's who), to the present. When I go back and read my own archives I find myself both embarrassing and endearing. Aw, how precious that I used to blog about switching mascara products and not knowing how to make a pie?! Who cares? These days, I don't even know what brands of mascara I have in my drawer and have, thankfully, since taken many a pie-making lesson from my mom.

Its focuses have changed a lot, as have I. Obviously, lately I've been into running, food, and books. I mostly write here now to keep myself accountable and be a part of conversations about these things, because I think it is important to invest and engage in interests outside of work - I would go CRAZY if my life were defined by Excel spreadsheets and case law precedent - and this blog helps me to prioritize that. It also reminds me that I love to learn new things, and gives me an outlet to track and discuss those triumphs and failures, as well as a record of the differences in myself. Anyway. This blurt is only tangentially related to the post at hand.

At some point in 2007 when I was either in my second year of law school or over the summer we got married, John talked me into joining the Edge gym in our neighborhood. I have never been a gym sort of person, but before that point had dabbled in yoga and running and held an unwanted membership to the New York Sports Club on Third Avenue and 91st, the hell of gyms. That place was always packed, no matter what time I went, and I disliked every class I took. Plus, there were always queues to use the cardio machines. Before I took up running seriously, I would go to the gym and stand on line to use the elliptical machine with a TV in my face, which seems silly in hindsight - why didn't I just run outside? Did I think that watching TV while exercising was better? Not sure. Our past selves often seem like weirdo strangers as we live and learn.

John lifts and trains very seriously, and I'll admit that when we met I thought he was off his rocker; I never, ever thought I would be remotely interested in training with weights. I would see the people in the weights area of the gym and was completely intimidated by all the meaty dudes throwing around barbells. Speaking of which, if you want to see an awesome video of John hitting the weights hard, check this out:

It was filmed by the gym for promotional purposes - I'm so proud! But, seriously, if I had seen this type of intensity going on back when I knew nothing about weight lifting and had just wandered in looking to work out, I would have quivered in fear and probably never come back.

But then, I tried it! I did a beginner's training overview of the Edge's "Power HIT" (HIT = High Intensity Training) program with one of the lead trainers at the gym, Denis (who is nuts, and has an amusing occasional blog here). At that time, I wasn't running a lot but did the Power HIT program fairly consistently. I got really strong, but now that I'm running more I have had to let some of that drop off. I still try to work out with weights once a week, because I think it helps me as a runner and a person with a boring desk job. In general, humans need core strength, which withers away the longer we sit in chairs at computers. Personally, I like to work out my legs because if I don't, I tend toward some knee pain as I build running mileage. I usually do squats, hamstring curls, leg extensions, 2-3 different ab exercises, calf raises, bench press, dips, and sometimes push press or RDLs. I change it around.

The problem is that I haven't been doing all this regularly AT ALL, and I know better. It is the first thing that I let slide if I get busy or am feeling down. But, after a tough run on Saturday, I had a "rest" day on Sunday, so I thought I should do a little cross-training after what I think was at least an entire month off. John talked me into going to the gym, and I did a little (not even a lot!) work with the weights.

Hooo, boy. I have been sore all week, but in a good way. On Monday I was so sore that I was hobbling around in the office - I blame the squats. And the dips. And the sit-ups.

The lesson here is not to take a month off. Noted.

[Not a Race] Report: NYRR's ING New York City Marathon Long Training Run #1

2011-07-24T16:49:00.000-04:00

To prepare for this marathon, I've been overwhelming myself by reading way too many different training programs. I signed up for a "break 5 hours" TrainingPeaks plan, tore a beginner's marathon plan page out of Runners' World and posted it on my office wall at work, took a look at the New York Running Company's plan, read a few of Hal Higdon's plans, and considered a Jeff Galloway run/walk program. The amount of information out there is exhausting, but I've learned that there are things that I like and dislike, and consistencies and inconsistencies, in all of the plans. From this and some help from my dad, I pieced together what I'm going to do: 4 days a week running, usually Tuesdays (speed workout, hills, or tempo run), Wednesdays (6.5-miler home from work, usually), Fridays (short run), and Saturday or Sunday (long run). I also try to do yoga on Mondays and weight training and serious stretching either Fridays or whichever weekend day I don't run.

If it isn't clear, I am a person who likes to be prepared. So.

I signed up for all three of the New York Road Runners' (NYRR) ING New York City Marathon Long Training Runs, just because they were cheap and I figured it would be great to have few training runs that were supported with water stations and volunteers, just like the real race will be. What I didn't figure was that the first long training run would come on the heels of the hottest day of the year, or that the New York City Office of Emergency Management would issue issued an "Excessive Heat Warning" for Saturday, July 23 because of the high heat index! How does one even prepare for that? You can't. I thought about trying to eat healthy food and drink lots of water on Friday, but due to an interesting beer-soaked evening out on Thursday that culminated in a midnight burger at Corner Bistro, I definitely needed to eat a big burrito for lunch on Friday, and then all I could really do that night was lie on the couch eating pimento cheese. Basically, I ate a bunch of crap on Friday, but I did succeed in drinking a ton of water.

Saturday morning I wanted to run 10 miles, but had no idea what to expect from myself with the crazy heat wave. I was nervous when I got up on Saturday morning, but choked down some coffee and a little bit of yogurt with grapes. On time, I left the apartment to head to the start of the run, but halfway there realized that I didn't have my apartment keys or any money, and that John wouldn't be home when I finished the run. Ugh. I jogged back and gathered those things, but then had to take a cab to the start - no harm done, but the hitch affected my focus and made me even more anxious. At 7AM, the temperature was already in the 80's and the dewpoint was 74 or so, and I was already totally sweaty.

I lined up at the back of what turned out to be the second 10:30/mile pace group. In advance, the NYRR had told everyone to scale back because of the heat, and that the pace groups would be running about :30 to 1:00 slower per mile. I thought I could maybe stick with the group for the first five miles, but I realized immediately that the 11:07 pace of the first mile was going to be too much for me to sustain for long. I dropped back from the group, made a quick stop at mile 2 for a bathroom break, and got myself together.

This run was HARD for me, physically and psychologically. After that first 11-minute mile, for miles 2-6 I stayed around an 11:30 pace, but for the one at Cat Hill which slowed down to 13 minutes because I walked up the whole thing. I walked through every single water station, tried to stay in the shade, and was seriously considered bailing and going home around mile 6 when I spied a familiar-looking person wearing a cute bright running skirt! It was Tracy, who I previously knew only from her blog. I needed company in a big way, so I said hi, and she introduced me to Kim, who was visiting from the Chicago area and trying to get in a 15-mile training run.

Tracy and I talked each other into going around the loop again, for 10-11 miles, by agreeing that we would do a little running, a little walking, to finish. (Kim was a great sport about the pace - even though she is much faster than us, she would take off and then loop back to keep us going, and when we finished she trotted off, smiling, to round out her 15 miles.) With the excellent company to help, and despite the miserable heat, we completed the 11 miles, and my overall average pace was around 12:30/mile. Not terrible at all for a 100-degree day, and I didn't even stop my watch when we walked for a good few minutes through the transverse after mile 6! Whooopsie. That mile took more than 15 minutes!

So, despite being under-prepared for a long run in these conditions and having no idea what to expect, I'm chalking this one up as a win. I got to meet some great people and did something I wasn't sure I could do.

I will say that the aftermath of this extra-sweaty run - some scary armpit chafing - has been no fun at all. Ow.

Oh, and also, I laughed to myself when I saw that Garmin estimated I burned 1200+ calories, because I'm pretty sure all of that was blown last night when I ate not one but TWO desserts. John and I went to Flex Mussels for dinner, and even after sharing four of their fabulous doughnuts for dessert, we thought it might be an awesome idea to stop by Pinkberry on the way home. It was.

Books I've Read - The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon

2011-07-24T11:25:00.000-04:00

by David Grann

When a friend of yours who doesn't really read much recommends a book, how to handle it? Automatically discount the recommendation, or consider that if he read it at all, it must be pretty good? I went with the latter on this one.

I read The New Yorker (most weeks), so I was familiar with David Grann and enjoyed his recent article about a political conspiracy murder in Guatemala.

This account of the author's research into the Victorian explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett's obsessive quest to find an Amazonian lost city, Fawcett's eventual disappearance, and, most interesting to me, the subsequent international press and multiple rescue excursions to uncover Fawcett's fate, is captivating. It reads like a true life adventure story.

To me, the largest factor in the success of Grann's account of this story is his impeccable research. He uncovered Fawcett's never-before-seen journals, cracked coded coordinates, and managed to review a rare, protected Conquistador-era document. Then, having never even camped before, he hired a guide and ventured into the "green hell" of the Amazon to see what he could see, personally interviewing tribal leaders and looking around for remnants of Fawcett's party and the lost city. With excellent narrative, he pieces together the information gathered from these primary sources, and Fawcett's adventure comes to life.

I was a little disappointed that Grann's account of his own trek into the Amazon (really only about one chapter) didn't have as much page time as the Fawcett story, but this is still a satisfying read.

Franks & Beans

2011-07-20T20:01:00.000-04:00

The other night I was trying to pull myself up and out of a post-vacation funk by skipping my workout to relax at home and make dinner, which went, shall we say, poorly.

I tried again last night. I had forgotten my running socks at home, and instead of going to buy some, I went back to the apartment after work to get dressed to run and put the dish in the oven before going out for an easy four miles, but, lo! The cloud of negative energy around me must have been stronger than I thought, because it was immediately clear that our oven was broken. Curses.

Apparently our block had a big blackout power outage while John and I were out of town, and this oven snafu may be related - I don't know if the pilot light was just out or if the igniting mechanism was broken, but the range worked, oven did not. Balls. Meanwhile, we learned that the giant loud ConEd temporary generator trucks that have been lined up all the way down the block are going to have be turned off overnight tonight to perform some sort of (hopefully permanent) fix...which means no electricity (read: no air conditioning or fan) in the apartment tonight. Awesome. Is it obvious that my funk persists?

The good news is that it is only (?) 86 degrees today, so it could certainly be worse. It could be in the hundreds. I am trying to focus on the positive. Another positive was that our stovetop did work last night, so I just covered the pan with foil and put it on low over the burner while I went out for a run. Instead of roasting the broccoli, I popped it into the microwave to steam. The building's handyman is supposed to take a look and hopefully fix the oven today. No harm done. Dinner was ready when I got home.

This recipe might need a tweak or two (maybe some added bacon and barbecue sauce...maybe less cumin? Something smoky, but not so Mexicanish), but it is very forgiving and pretty good as-is, even made without a functional oven. This is fine comfort food, perfect to remedy the post-vacation, bad-luck blues. It didn't quite cure me, but I'm feeling better. While we were eating dinner, John reminded me of the night we first moved in together - after dealing with the move and combining our substantial pile of stuff for cohabitation all day, we dragged our tired selves out to the diner on the corner of our new block. They had Franks & Beans on the specials menu, and he ordered it! I didn't remember that, but apparently they made a positive impression on him, because that was way back in 2005! He's funny.

Summer Funk Franks & Beans
loosely based on this recipe from Food & Wine
makes 4 huge servings

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons pure olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 celery ribs, finely chopped
1 medium onion, minced
1 28-ounce can of pork and beans (I've tried to make these from scratch, soaking the beans and all that, and they just aren't as good.)
3 medium tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup light brown sugar
3 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons chopped basil
1 1/2 tablespoons minced rosemary
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons butter
5 hot dogs, sliced into 1-inch pieces (I made mine at home! Here's the link to that gruesome story.)

Instructions:

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over low heat. Add the garlic, celery and onion and cook over low heat, stirring, until softened, about 8 minutes. Stir in the beans, tomatoes, ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, mustard, basil, rosemary, cumin and paprika, and bring to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper. At this point, if your oven works, it would be a good idea to preheat it to 350 degrees. If not, no worries. You can just keep on cooking on the stove top.

Meanwhile, in a large cast-iron skillet (or other oven-proof pan, if your oven works), heat the butter over medium-high heat. Add the hot dogs, and cook them, stirring, until they are brown, about 5 minutes.

Pour the bean mixture in with the hot dogs, and stir it around so that the hot dogs are evenly distributed. Then, bake in the center of the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or, alternatively, cover and continue simmering on the stove top over medium heat until the sauce is thick. Serve at once.

Enjoy!

P.S. After moaning and groaning about how disgusting it was to make these hot dogs at home, and not being all that thrilled to eat them on a bun the regular way, I have to say that this was a really excellent vehicle by which to serve them. Slicing them up and hiding them a delicious beany sauce almost made me forget about the meat spackle. Almost.

Summer funk

2011-07-19T13:53:00.000-04:00

No, this post is not about smelly summer sweaty body odor funk. Although, now that I mention it, I have some thoughts on that, too. Another time.

Last week I was on vacation. It was nice. I went running with my dad and his running partner, and although two of those runs were hot and humid, one 8-miler was flat, cool, and lovely. After that one, I felt great. I remember telling my dad that I could have run 10 miles that day, and thinking that it was a good run to kick off a 16-week marathon training plan. (I've already been running consistently, but I really need to commit to my schedule.)

Now, though, I'm back in New York, and ever since our plane touched down in Newark on Sunday night I've been scowling. Everyone keeps getting in my way on the sidewalk. The subway sucks balls. The weather is hot and sluggish. The cats wake me up all night long and are constantly trying to knock over this huge glass lamp in our bedroom. I dropped a half carton of fresh eggs on the kitchen floor. Work is...work. Everything is pissing me off.

I bailed on my Monday night yoga class yesterday and the result has been that I'm making myself miserable with guilt and coming up with excuses, which is totally useless. One particularly ridiculous excuse that crossed my mind was that I should stay at home and try to calm down by making dinner. After all, I do have a pile of home-made hot dogs left over from the last Charcutepalooza project, and I thought some franks and beans would cheer me up.

No. Just, no.

First of all, "calm down" by skipping YOGA!? That's stupid. Obviously, it did not work out. I got even more stressed and grumpy, and although I did get the recipe started (I'll share it here eventually), we ended up ordering delivery because I quickly realized that dinner would probably not be ready until after 10PM and I had HAD IT.

It got worse. I knew I should have set my alarm for 5AM to go running this morning to try to work out this funk, but I didn't, and then I couldn't sleep anyway. To make up for it, I packed my running stuff to take to work so that I can run home this evening, but I just realized that I forgot socks. Gah. Grouch, grouch, grump, grump, grump. I guess I'll buy some socks after work and still do a short run, but that's annoying.

I need to snap out of this.

Charcutepalooza July Challenge: Blending, and home-made hot dogs

2011-07-15T06:00:00.001-04:00

Here we are at the 15th of July, and I will first point out that until this month's challenge (link to Mrs. Wheelbarrow's instructions is here), I had wholeheartedly enjoyed participating in six months of Charcutepalooza. I loved hanging duck breasts to cure near our chilly bedroom window in January, making fresh bacon, corned beef (by FAR our favorite), and sausages. All of it, even the difficult and messy bits.

But, I did not love this challenge. I hated it. It was icky.

I chose to do the hot dogs, which sounded like a wonderful learning experience. I mean, everyone is dubious about the contents of a hot dog, right? We've all read The Jungle. So, I was thrilled to try to make an all-beef hot dog with the short rib meat that I bought from Fresh Direct. I was pretty excited about it, but, in the end, it was not at all enjoyable. Not even a smidgen. No way, no how am I ever, ever doing this again.

Exhibit A:

Meat paste. Yes. It is what you think it is, which is paste made out of meat. It is disgusting.

I first had to partially freeze and grind the meat, then combine it with other ingredients and process it in the food processor so that the hot dog gets that smooth consistency. Oh, so, so gross. I cannot even describe to you how unpleasant this was. Maybe another picture might help.

Exhibit B:

Meat paste? More like meat spackle. Sticky. Meaty. Just writing this and looking at it again is making me shudder.

So, yeah, that happened.

And then, there was the issue with the casings. Remember last month when I traipsed all over the Upper East Side hunting for casings, and then the nice guys at Agata & Valentina sold me 10 feet for like three bucks? Those were the good times. This time, I went ahead and ordered some dried hog casings from Butcher & Packer, and now I have a HUGE bag of casings in my 'fridge. I will probably not even live long enough to use them all up. If you are a New Yorker and you need dried hog casings, I am not even kidding, just e-mail me and I will give you how ever many feet you want for absolutely FREE! Hog casings for everyone! I have so many. Please take them. I don't need all these.

Plus, they smell funny.

The smell of a dried hog casing is like a fleshy, meaty, barnyard smell, but salty and a little ripe - like the inside of a belly button or behind some sweaty person's ear. Ew.

Once the meat spackle is ready, which is sticky (one ingredient is corn syrup), then you have to stuff the casings. This was totally fine last time, when the sausage bits weren't blended into a tacky paste, but this goo was much more difficult to smash into the stuffer. John tried, but it was a MESS. We did end up getting it in there, though...eventually:

The kitchen was much messier than this appears. I am very worried that I might continue to find meat paste on hidden surfaces far into the future.

Hot dawg!

I then hot-smoked them in my oven like I did with the Canadian bacon (this step actually took a REALLY long time - longer than I expected):

They really are this odd pink color.

And they were ready to go.

After all of this, I decided that making these at home was not worth it to me. These were no better than your average Yankee Stadium dog, or even than the Hebrew National that you threw on your grill over the Fourth of July. They were OK, but not delicious enough to outweigh the ick factor. I understand that an industrially-processed hot dog is also, as I say, "icky," because there is no telling what is in them or how the animals the meat came from were treated. I do, I understand this. But, I do not wish to make hot dogs in my tiny kitchen again, and will instead look for a butcher that makes them with humanely-sourced meat.

Meat spackle. The most revolting thing my kitchen has ever produced. Easily.

[Updated 20 July 2011. I made Franks & Beans with some of these hot dogs, and I have to admit that I am on the road to enjoying them. The beany saucy disguise definitely helped!]

Books I've Read: Bright's Passage

2011-07-12T12:56:00.000-04:00

by Josh Ritter

I am still thinking about this little novel, Bright's Passage, which was written by one of my very favorite songwriters, Josh Ritter (you can see what I thought about his music here, here and here, but suffice it to say that I LOVE it), so I'm not quite ready to say too much now.

What I will say is that I am still thinking about it, and that I think Neil Gaman's recent tweet about it was right on: "By the way, @joshritter's BRIGHT'S PASSAGE is beautiful and filled with awe and darkness and wonder. Such a fine first novel." These days, I have been reading books and moving on, and I haven't read anything recently that has haunted me quite like this one.

We are on vacation at my parents' house in southern Illinois, which John says is like being at a country resort. All we have to do is take it easy, so we're busily relaxing very hard. This includes a little bit of running (although it has been 100 degrees and humid, so not too much!), reading, playing golf, hanging out by the pool, and drinking beers out back, taking in the nice view of rolling southern Illinois farmland, while my mom makes all of our food. I love to visit here.

Furry Friday

2011-07-08T08:28:00.000-04:00

Mabel is thinking, "Why you wanna mess with my nap time, lady? I've got enough to worry about living with my buffoon brother."

Note Mack in the background on the ladder-back chair beside the TV. This was taken a few minutes after he forcibly ousted her from that chair and she relocated to this chair. Her life is hard.

Running hills

2011-07-06T09:44:00.000-04:00

Who wants to run some hills after a terrible first day back to work after a relaxing 3-day holiday weekend? Not me. Not one bit.

But, I dragged myself home after work and gave myself a pep talk while lying on the bed petting the cats. "It will only take half an hour," I said. "I will be home in just half an hour." The cats just stared at me. They are no help in the pep talk department, but it worked well enough to get me into my (new!) running clothes and out the door.

Aside: yes, I bought a few new marathon-training-incentivizing running items. Wildly exciting! Included were some running tight shorts, because the capris I love so much are too hot for this weather, and most of my other shorts, mainly the Nike Tempo shorts, lack pockets and cause some sad chub-rub inner thigh chafing because they ride up. I hate this and would much rather wear scary/awkward spandex-type shorts that will keep my jiggly bits in place and away from each other (result: no chafing!) and have an awesome zippered pocket at the back than looser running shorts that (a) have only a minuscule, useless key pocket in the front waistband and (b) do nothing to prevent chafing.

I also picked up a few new dri-fit running tank tops, because all of my technical shirts were T-shirts and I wasn't loving the sleeve in the recent warm weather. In August I'm going to buy a couple of new pairs of shoes to get me through the rest of marathon training. The only other items I need to run are socks (I like Wrightsocks), a bra, and a hat, and I am good to go with all of that.

Anyway, dressed in my new shorts, I was much more cheerful and comfortable when I trotted out to run some hills. I think they made me faster.

I ran a one-mile warm up, then looped back to run the hill on 91st Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. The good: this hill is closed to traffic, and I think it is about 225 meters long, which makes it well-suited for this type of workout. The bad: a lot of the neighborhood smokers seem to congregate here to pollute the block with their cancer clouds, which is pretty gross. So it goes. I ran up as fast as I could, then walked down, five times, then jogged another slow mile. Ugh. I did not like it. But, I did it, and that's what I have learned is important when running hills - just to get it over with as quickly as possible.

After that, I went home and ate some leftover lamb burgers. (Recipe, from Saveur, is here. So good.)

On My Nightstand: Reading List - July 2011

2011-07-05T08:34:00.011-04:00

Tuesday after a three-day holiday weekend. Brutal.

I put together a giant aspirational reading list back at the beginning of the year, and I did get through 15 of those (plus a few others) during the first half of the year. However, one of my resolutions for 2011 was to try to read an average of a book a week, and, alas, here at my mid-year check-in I am quite behind. That's fine, though, it is all about the journey. I love to read, but have to make time for other awesome things (like running and eating), too!

The list below is smaller - intentionally capped at 35 - so maybe I will feel as though I am actually accomplishing something as I tick them off over the next several months. Some are from the previous list, and some are new; I plan to keep working on that other giant list as life goes on.

Here we go!

~~The Devil's Cup: A History of the World According to Coffee~~, by Stewart Lee Allen (11 January 2012)
~~The New York Trilogy (City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room)~~, by Paul Auster (23 January 2012)
Bloomberg by Bloomberg, by Michael Bloomberg
My Life in France, by Julia Child
Woman in White, by Willkie Collins *
Hopscotch, by Julio Cortazar
The Privileges, by Jonathan Dee
~~Sarah's Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay~~ (31 August 2011)
Bleak House, by Charles Dickens * (already started...I WILL finish this thing this calendar year)
A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
Middlemarch, by George Eliot *
The Corrections~~, by Jonathan Franzen (re-read)~~ (11 August 2011)
~~American Gods, by Neil Gaiman~~ (29 September 2011)
~~The Lost City of Z, by David Grann~~ (24 July 2011)
Blood, Bones & Butter, by Gabrielle Hamilton
~~Ten Thousand Saints, by Eleanor Henderson~~ (18 November 2011)
~~Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand~~ (17 August 2011)
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
~~The Gods of Newport, by John Jakes~~ (25 August 2011)
Salt, by Mark Kurlansky
Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball, by Bill Madden
Matterhorn, by Karl Marlantes
A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book One), by George R.R. Martin
The Thousand Autumns of Jacon De Zoet, by David Mitchell
The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, by Robert M. Pirsig
Tear Down This Wall, by Romesh Ratnesar
Tender at the Bone, by Ruth Reichl
~~Bright's Passage, by Josh Ritter~~ (12 July 2011)
Shantaram, by Gregory Davis Roberts
Just Kids, by Patti Smith
The Secret History, by Donna Tartt *
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, by Jeffrey Toobin
The Billionaire's Vinegar, by Benjamin Wallace

* = on The Guardian's list of "100 Books You Can't Live Without", a rather odd list I've been trying to work through
Lavender = books physically lying on my bookshelf
Green = already in my Kindle

Books I've Read: Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

2011-07-04T10:05:00.000-04:00

by Suketu Mehta

This was a tough read for me. I started Maximum City after I got back from my last business trip to India, but I had to take several breaks from it.

"The greatest luxury of all is solitude. A city this densely packed affords no privacy."

It wasn't that it isn't interesting. It is, especially to a Westerner, such as myself, who is fascinated with India. The frustrations and violence of modern Mumbai made it a difficult book to take in all at once - the chapters about the gangs and the government and police corruption are amazing, not just because of the underworld they illuminate, but that the criminals involved allowed the writer to get so close.

"Underworld and dreamworld - in Bombay they are reflections of each other."

I also thought that some parts of this book were overly drawn out and tedious - the part about the Hindu-Muslim tensions and their gangs is really long, and I lost interest after a while. I really liked the parts about the dancers in the beer bars, but then when he moved on to describe his involvement in a Bollywood movie, I resorted to skimming.

One of the parts I found the most unbelievable was about the Rent Act, which fixed rental rates at the 1940 levels. Because landlords could not charge more than this for rent, they refused to repair anything in their buildings; the only way to get anything repaired was to bribe someone. It makes living in New York, where rental prices are insanely high and housing is terribly competitive, sound laughably simple. Reading this book made me ever more thankful to have clean water and a functional waste management system.

"The notion of what is a luxury and what is a basic need has been upended in Bombay. Every slum I see in Jogeshwari has a television; antennas sprout in silver branches above the shanties. Many in the middle-class slum have motorcycles, even cars. People in Bombay eat relatively well, too, even the slum dwellers. The real luxuries are running water, clean bathrooms, and transport and housing fit for human beings."